Luciana's Porchetta
★★★★★
PREP TIME
12 hours
COOK TIME
3 hours 30 minutes
SERVES
6 to 8
Ingredients
6 pounds
butterflied pork shoulder
1 1/2 tablespoons
coarse salt
1 1/2 tablespoons
black peppercorns
1 tablespoon
fennel seed
1 tablespoon
coriander
1 tablespoon
red pepper flakes
5
garlic cloves, mashed up
1 tablespoon
chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon
finely grated orange zest
3 tablespoons
olive oil
3
bay leaves
1
piece pork skin, large enough to cover the shoulder, like a pashmina, or 9 thin slices pancetta
1/2 cup
good red wine vinegar
Instructions
- Toast spices and salt in small heavy bottom pan till fragrant, and crush in mortar and pestle or mini chop. It should be rather coarse, not a powder. I am not ashamed to admit I use a magic bullet blender that I bought on TV; it grinds beautifully and makes smoothies.
- Mix spices with chopped rosemary, orange zest and mashed up garlic, add olive oil till it makes a paste
- Slather the pork in the spice mix, and place in a baggie with the bay leaves over night or up to 3 days; remember to smoosh it around when you are in the fridge
- Preheat oven to 325° F; bring pork to room temperature.
- Take pork out of baggie, turn baggie inside out and rub all the spice paste over the inside of the pork skin
- Roll pork into a cylindrical shape, tie with butcher twine at 1" intervals, stick the bay leaves under the middle strings, and lay skin over top (if using pancetta, lay the slices across the top like fish scales).
- Place in a roasting pan with a rack, and roast until the internal temperature reaches 150. remove and let sit until goes to @ 160. Depending on your oven you may need to rotate it every so often. It should take 3 to 3 1/2 hours.
- Remove skin, scrape off the fat (if you want) and cut into strips with a sharp set of shears (say that 4 times fast), to serve. (The pancetta will crisp, so simply break it into small pieces for serving alongside the porchetta.)
- Deglaze pan with vinegar. Don't reduce too much -- just enough to get rid of some off the sharpness (this is more like a porky vinaigrette).
- To serve slice into 1/4" slices, add a strip of skin (or pancetta) to each plate (or pile atop if serving en masse on a platter) and drizzle with sauce.
- Serve with garlicky bitter greens and roasted or mashed potatoes, or escarole & white beans. The next day make Philly Style Roast Pork Sandwiches by piling warm pork & greens on a crusty seeded long roll with thin slices of sharp aged provolone.
