Porchetta (Italian Pork Roll)

Pork belly with skin, seasoned with a flavorful combination of fennel seeds, thyme, garlic, and lemon, rolled into a roast and slowly baked to a crispy crust. An Italian specialty that will surely impress your guests.

Details

  • Preparation Time: 20 minutes
  • Cooking Time: 210 minutes
  • Difficulty: 2
  • Spiciness: 0
  • Number of Servings: 8

Ingredients

  • 2 kg Meat, pork, ribs

  • 40 g Salt, table

  • 20 g Sugar, white

  • 1 spoon Spices, caraway seeds

  • 3 pieces Spices, ginger, ground

  • 10 twig Thyme, fresh

  • 5 pods Garlic, fresh

  • pieces Lemon zest, fresh

  • pieces Spices, pepper, black

  • 2 piece Onion, raw

  • 2 spoons Oil, olive

  • 2 dl Alcohol, Wine, White

Steps

  1. Dry the pork belly well and rub it with a mixture of salt and sugar. Place it in a container, cover it, and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

  2. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Dry the pork belly again, then use a sharp knife to make crosswise cuts in the skin. Make crosswise cuts in the meat as well, about a centimeter deep.

  3. In a dry pan, toast the fennel seeds for two minutes, then roughly grind them in a mortar. Finely chop the herbs and garlic. Spread all of this along with the grated lemon zest over the meat, then roll it up into a roast.

  4. Tie the roll in several places with kitchen twine, spacing the ties about two centimeters apart.

  5. Arrange thick slices of onion in a baking dish and place the meat on top. Bake it in the preheated oven for three hours, then remove the dish from the oven, pour white wine into it, and brush the skin with olive oil. Increase the temperature to 200 degrees Celsius and bake for another 30 minutes to crisp up the skin.

  6. Let the porchetta rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Nutrition Information (Per 100g)

  • Calories: 251.32 kcal
  • Fat: 19.92 g
    • Saturated Fat: 5.9 g
  • Carbohydrates: 3.3 g
    • Sugars: 1.11 g
  • Protein: 12.74 g
  • Fiber: 0.7 g

Advice

For this recipe, you can also use ribs with skin, but remove the bones at the beginning of preparation. For larger gatherings, you can take a bigger piece of meat. Adjust the amount of salt, using 20 g per kilogram of meat, and sugar, using 10 g per kilogram of meat. Its good to use fresh herbs, but if you dont have them on hand, you can also use dried ones. For two kilograms of meat, use about half a teaspoon of dried oregano and one and a half teaspoons of dried thyme. Instead of fennel seeds, you can also use cumin seeds.