Tutto Porchetta : here is the homemade recipe

What is porchetta?

Porchetta is an Italian excellence typical of the central regions: from Lazio to Tuscany, passing through the Marche, there are truly exceptional variations in terms of flavours, aromas and traditions. Porchetta is pork and its sublime flavor is given by the added spices which, depending on the area you are in, allow the product to take on a spicy or sweet and sour touch.

The authorship of the dish is, to this day, rather uncertain. It seems that the Etruscans started the dish in the area that today includes the north of Lazio, however Tuscia also claims part of the national pride and claims that the pigs were raised exclusively in those areas. To become porchetta, the pig must be slaughtered within the year and must not weigh more than 100 kg.

How is Porchetta prepared?

The techniques for bringing the perfect porchetta to the table range and revolve around the additional aromas. The traditional method is rather long and complex and usually offers an extraordinary result, provided it is carried out in a workmanlike manner by an experienced and competent master butcher. After having washed, gutted and boned the pork, we proceed as per tradition to add the aromas: coarse salt, pepper, garlic, fifth quarter cut into pieces, rosemary and - only if you are in Tuscia - fennel. At the end it is sewn with kitchen twine and skewered with the stick and then begins cooking on the spit - or in the oven. Cooking varies from a minimum of 5 hours to a maximum of 8 hours and is strictly linked to the size of the animal.

Baked Porchetta recipe

The preparation of the dish can be done using a cut of meat from the animal which, in addition to the traditional aromas, allows diners to relive the delicious and fragrant climate, typical of village festivals.

Ingredients for baked Porchetta

The ingredients are rather basic, just like the preparation which owes its relative difficulty only to the control of cooking, for the rest, well, it's really easy!

• 1.5 kg of pork loin
• 1 kg of pork belly with rind
• 2 glasses of white wine
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 1 sprig of oregano
• 1 clove of garlic
• coarse sea salt to taste
• nutmeg to taste

Procedure for baked Porchetta

Place the bacon on a work surface, keeping the rind facing outwards. Distribute the previously chopped spices: garlic, black pepper and rosemary. Add the pork loin and roll everything up, seal with kitchen twine.

Using coarse salt, massage the rind to increase the crunchiness at the end of cooking and wrap it in foil. Preheat the oven to 220°C, when it has reached the temperature, bake in static mode, placing the porchetta on the grill. In the dripping pan, add a little water, two glasses of white wine, a pinch of nutmeg and the sprig of oregano.

Leave to cook for about an hour, and remove from the oven. Change the cooking mode from static to ventilated, remove the pork from the foil and bake again for about an hour and a half. Once cooked, remove from the oven, cut into slices about one centimeter thick and bring to the table.

Baked porchetta, useful tips

To understand when pork is cooked, just do a mathematical calculation: each kilogram of meat corresponds to one hour of cooking. During cooking it is also a good idea to check for the presence of humidity by topping up the dripping pan with water from time to time, so as to prevent the meat from losing all its juices and being dry on the palate. As an alternative to pork, you can choose to prepare other cuts of meat such as rabbit in porchetta, a tasty and particular idea!

The aromas, however, deserve a small mention since they represent a crucial point in terms of the authorship of the dish: if in Tuscany fennel is the undisputed king, while in Lazio it is nutmeg combined with rosemary that is preferred.

The proposed version chooses to refer to the Lazio tradition where the porchetta di Ariccia is the culinary attraction of tourists and locals who eat it in a slice of bread while walking down the street. Porchetta is in fact one of the dishes that can be consumed on different occasions: from the "tasty sandwich on the fly" to the demanding lunch on a festive Sunday.