Porchetta Abruzzo- Pork Roast

This recipe for porchetta has all the rich, crackling-coated goodness of the classic Italian pork roast without having to debone a whole pig and cook it for 8 hours. It's fairly easy to recreate the intense garlic, lemon, and herb flavors an Italian porchetta is famous for. Leftovers make for incredible sandwiches, especially when matched-up with rappini or spinach.

5 from 3 votes

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Course: Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: Central Italy, Italian

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 4 30

Brining Overnight: 8

Total Time: 12 45

Servings:

Author: My Hungry Traveler

Equipment

Food processor or mortar and pestle
Rimmed baking pan with rack
Kitchen twine (string)
Instant read thermometer

Ingredients

7 lb Slab skin-on pork belly or boneless pork roast
¼ cup Fresh rosemary , chopped
1 tbls Sage leaves, chopped
1 tsp Dried thyme
6 cloves Garlic, minced
1 tsp Coarse black pepper
1 tsp Crushed red pepper flakes
1 medium Lemon, zest only
3 tbsp Fennel seed
4 tsp Kosher salt
¼ cup Extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp Baking powder

US Customary - Metric

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Instructions

Prepare Roast

Lay roast fat-side down and score the meat-side with a sharp knife. Make diagonal incisions 1-inch apart and then rotate 90 degrees and repeat to create a diamond pattern.
Create a paste in the food processor by combing fennel seeds, rosemary, sage, thyme, rep pepper flakes, black pepper, garlic, and lemon zest. Pour in oil. Pulse until mixture forms a paste. Rub all over the pork meat and into the cuts.
Roll roast into a tight log and push to the top of the cutting board, seam-side down. Tie with string at 2-inch intervals, working from the outsides toward the center. Combine salt and baking powder and rub all over the outside of the roast. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight and up to three days.

Roasting Porchetta

Remove pork from the refrigerator 1 to 2 hours before cooking. Move rack to the lower-middle part of the oven and preheat oven to 300°F (150°C). Set porchetta over a wire rack in a large roasting pan.
Place in oven and roast until the internal temperature of the roast reaches 160°F (70C), about 2 hours. Baste with pan drippings every half hour.
Cook about another 2 hours until a skewer show very little resistance when poked through the skin.
Increase oven temperature to 500°F ( 260°C) and continue roasting until completely crisp and blistered, about 20 to 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and tent with foil for 15 minutes. Slice into 1-inch slices, remove string, and serve.

Notes

- Uncooked porchetta can be frozen to cook later at the point in would normally be placed the refrigerator to marinate.
- Roast can be placed under a foil tent on a board for up-to 2 hours before the final crisping in a 500 degree oven for 20-30 minutes.

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