All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (2024)

Why It Works

  • All-belly cut roasts evenly without drying out, making it practically impossible to overcook.
  • An overnight rub with baking powder and salt to lower the pH and final blast of high heat ensures a crispier skin.
  • The geometric symmetry of the porchetta makes it easy to carve and serve virtually identical slices.

Does anyone else feel like porchetta—the Italian roast of slow-roasted fennel-scented juicy pork surrounded with crisp, crackling skin—is appearing everywhere these days? Not that I'm complaining. As far as I'm concerned, the more slow-cooked pork in my life, the better. Indeed, my goal is to get a porchetta on every table in America this year (and perhaps some beyond our borders as well). I'm counting on you all to help me achieve my vision of a United States of Porkdom.

Reasons to Make Porchetta for the Holidays

  1. It's delicious. Easily more delicious than turkey, pretty much definitely more delicious than prime rib, and arguably better than leg of lamb. (Don't even mention veggie loaf).
  2. It looks awesome. Other roasts can be imposing in the center of the table, but none are as geometrically perfect, so easy to carve, and as breathtakingly covered in crackly skin. This geometric symmetry, by the way, makes for easy, even cooking. No awkward thin regions that overcook or thick regions that stay raw in the center.
  3. It helps avoid fights. Holidays can be a bit trying for the old family, especially when you're fighting over dark meat or light meat or who gets to gnaw on the rib bones. With porchetta, every single slice is exactly the same, by which I mean perfect.
  4. It's forgiving. Accidentally overcook red meat or poultry and it'll be so dry you might as well serve the gravy-soaked contents of your paper recycling bin to your guests. Overcook porchetta and... wait, that's right, you pretty much can't overcook porchetta.
  5. It's inexpensive. Pork belly might cost you about $10 per pound—at a fancy butcher. More likely you'll find it for $4-5/pound, at least a quarter the cost of a well-marbled prime rib. Want an aged prime rib? You must have some deep, deep pockets.
  6. Leftover porchetta sandwiches are freakin' awesome. That's all there is to say about that one.

Convinced yet? Read on, my friends.

Cuts for Traditional Porchetta: Belly and Loin

Traditional porchetta is made by butchering a hog such that the boned out loin is still attached to the boned out belly. This meat is then carefully salted and rubbed with a garlic, herb, and spice mixture that features plenty of fennel and black pepper along with traditional ingredients like crushed red pepper, citrus zest, and rosemary, sage, and other piney-scented herbs (you can, of course, vary this mixture to suit your own tastes). By then carefully rolling the two together, you end up with a single perfectly cylindrical roast with the fatty belly surrounding the lean loin, all covered in a layer of skin.

As the rolled porchetta rests, the salt slowly penetrates into the meat, dissolving the muscle protein myosin and altering its structure so that it's able to retain moisture more effectively as well as giving it a slightly bouncier, more resilient texture (think sausage or ham, not rubber ball). As the pork is subsequently roasted, the fatty belly portion rich in juices and connective tissues ostensibly helps keep the relatively dry loin moist.

But we all know that this isn't really how cooking works. All the fat in the world surrounding a lean, tightly textured muscle like a pork loin will not help keep it moist if you cook it past 150°F or so.

On the other hand, belly, with its extensive network of connective tissue and abundant fat content, needs to be cooked to at least 160°F for a couple of hours in order for that tissue to slowly break down and for some of the fat to render.

So why do traditional porchetta recipes call for both belly and loin? My guess is that at the time porchetta was invented, hogs hadn't yet been bred to have large, lean loins and thus there wasn't as big a distinction between the belly and loin sections. Both would have had plenty of fat and connective tissue, making both parts totally tasty even when cooked to a higher temperature.

Going for an All-Belly Porchetta

We, on the other hand, need a better solution, so here's one: discard the loin and go for an all-belly porchetta instead. We all know that pork belly—the same cut that the magnificence that is bacon comes from—is the king of pork cuts, and that pork is the king of meats, and that meats are the masters of the universe.

This makes eating an all-belly porchetta somewhat akin to consuming an aromatic, crispy, salty slab of awesome seasoned with He-Man. Or something like that. You get the picture.

Tracking down a single, intact belly shouldn't actually be too difficult. Far easier than, say, finding a whole Suckling Pig. What you want is a whole, boneless, rind-on belly with the rib meat still attached. This should weigh in at around 12 to 15 pounds or so. Your butcher should be able to order one for you easily, or if you live near a Chinatown, take a stroll into one of the butchers there—most likely they've got pork bellies in stock. (Special thanks to Pat LaFrieda for providing us with our raw testing materials.)

All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (1)

Once you've got your belly, everything else is a piece of cake, just give yourself enough time to execute. Assembling the porchetta itself should take no more than an hour, and once assembled, you can wrap it in plastic and store it in the fridge for up to three days (so long as the belly was quite fresh when you got it). It'll actually improve with age as the salt works its way through the meat.

By the way, if you roast your porchetta in a roasting pan, some par-boiled potatoes added to the pan about two hours into cooking would not be a bad idea. If not, make sure to save the fat for roasting potatoes later on.

December 2011

Recipe Details

All-Belly Porchetta Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 whole boneless, rind-on pork belly, about 12 to 15 pounds (5.4 to 6.8kg)

  • 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns

  • 3 tablespoons whole fennel seeds

  • 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper

  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary, sage, or thyme leaves

  • 12 cloves garlic, grated on a microplane grate

  • Kosher salt

  • 2 teaspoons baking powder

Directions

  1. Place pork belly skin-side down on a large cutting board. Using a sharp chef's knife, score flesh at an angle using strokes about 1-inch apart. Rotate knife 90 degrees and repeat to create a diamond pattern in the flesh.

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (2)

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (3)

  2. Toast peppercorns and fennel seeds in a small skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned and aromatic, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a mortar and pestle or spice grinder and grind until roughly crushed.

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (4)

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (5)

  3. Season pork liberally with salt then sprinkle with crushed pepper and fennel, red pepper, chopped herbs, and microplaned garlic. Use your hands to rub the mixture deeply into the cracks and crevices in the meat.

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (6)

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (7)

  4. Roll belly into a tight log and push to top of cutting board, seam-side down. Cut 12 to 18 lengths of kitchen twine long enough to tie around the pork and lay them down in regular intervals along your cutting board, about 1-inch apart each. Lay rolled pork seam-side down on top of strings. Working from the outermost strings towards the center, tie up roast tightly. Combine 2 tablespoons kosher salt with 2 teaspoons baking powder. Rub mixture over entire surface of pork.

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (8)

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (9)

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (10)

  5. If roast is too large and unwieldy, carefully slice in half with a sharp chef's knife. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate at least overnight and up to 3 days. If desired, porchetta can also be frozen at this point for future use (see notes).

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (11)

  6. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat oven to 300°F (150°C). Place pork in a V-rack set in a large roasting pan, or if cooking both halves at the same time, on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet. Place roasting pan in oven and roast until internal temperature of pork reaches 160°F (71°C), about 2 hours, basting with pan drippings every half hour. If you'd like to cook potatoes along with the porchetta, see note. Continue roasting until a knife or skewer inserted into the pork shows very little resistance asides from the outer layer of skin, about 2 hours longer.

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (12)

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (13)

  7. Increase oven temperature to 500°F (260°C) and continue roasting until completely crisp and blistered, about 20 to 30 minutes longer. Alternatively, you can remove the roast from the oven and tent with foil for up to 2 hours before finishing it in a preheated 500°F oven.

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (14)

  8. Tent with foil and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Slice with a serrated knife into 1-inch thick disks and serve.

    All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (15)

Notes

Herbs and aromatics can be substituted or altered according to taste.

I find it easiest to work with a whole belly at a time and if a smaller roast is desired, to split it in half and freeze half while still raw. Wrapped tightly in foil and plastic wrap, it should last for several months in the freezer. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and proceed with cooking steps as instructed.

To cook with potatoes, cut four pounds russet potatoes into two-inch chunks and boil in salted water until just tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. Add to roasting pan in the middle of step 6, tossing them with the pig's drippings to coat. Continue roasting the porchetta with the potatoes in the pan. Turn the potatoes with a spatula every 45 minutes or so as they roast.

If you're using a rimmed baking sheet and still want to roast potatoes, you can pour off the drippings in the middle of step 6, toss them then the par-boiled potatoes, then place the potatoes on a separate rimmed baking sheet in a rack below the porchetta. Turn the potatoes every 45 minutes or so as they roast.

Special Equipment

Roasting pan with V-rack or rimmed baking sheet with metal rack, twine

Read More

  • The Food Lab Redux: 7 Pork Dishes for the Holidays
  • Pork Belly
  • Easter
  • Christmas Dinners
  • Italian
  • Roasted Pork
All-Belly Porchetta Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between pork belly and porchetta? ›

Usually a porchetta is a pork loin seasoned with garlic, rosemary, fennel, citrus and other herbs, then (get this) wrapped in a pork belly. There it was…”pork belly”…that is the difference between a regular, wonderful stuffed pork roast and a porchetta!

What cut of meat is porchetta made from? ›

Though you can make porchetta from a single cut of boned pork belly or shoulder, a combination of fatty belly and lean, tender loin – with the skin left on the belly for maximum crisp – offers the best of both worlds. You'll probably need to go to a butcher to make sure you get pieces of the right shape.

How do you cook pork belly so it's not tough? ›

Preheat oven to 450°F. Roast pork belly for 30 minutes on the middle rack in a heavy, oven-safe pan or skillet, skin side up / fat side up. Reduce heat to 275°F and roast for an hour or more, until tender but not mushy. (Larger pieces of pork belly will take longer.

What's the difference between porchetta and porketta? ›

In the Upper Midwest, porchetta, more often spelled "porketta", was also introduced by Italian immigrants to the iron ranges of Minnesota and Michigan. Porketta remains a popular local dish in towns such as Hibbing, Minnesota, with distributors such as Fraboni Sausage.

Do you cook porchetta fat side up or down? ›

Place fat-side up on a wire rack in a roasting pan. Roast for one hour, until the fat is crisp. Reduce heat down to 325º F (160°C) and cook until the internal temperature reaches 168° F (75°C), about 60 to 80 minutes longer; test in several spots to be sure of your measurement.

Why is belly pork so expensive? ›

So, why the fresh high prices for pork bellies? It goes back to the elementary lessons of supply and demand. According to market analysis, pork bellies' supply is tight.

Why is my porchetta not crispy? ›

The skin wasn't dry enough. Make sure to pat the pork completely dry before rubbing in the salt and oil as excess moisture will stop it from crisping up. It's important to score the skin if you want it really crisp. You'll need a sharp knife for this, or ask your butcher to do it for you.

How do Italians eat porchetta? ›

One of the best ways to eat porchetta, and what we Romans love in any type of weather, is as a sandwich with no other ingredients than bread and meat: the famous panino con la porchetta… The simpler the better! The bread should be strictly homemade to perfectly absorb the fat and seasoning.

What is traditionally served with porchetta? ›

Pairing Perfection: 11 BEST Side Dishes for Porchetta
  • Produce.
  • • 1 Buttered asparagus.
  • • 1 Carrot slaw with cilantro and mint.
  • • 1 Cherry tomato salad with fresh basil.
  • • 1 Corn, on the Cob.
  • • 1 Mashed potatoes with chives, Creamy.
  • • 1 Parmesan and garlic green beans.
  • • 1 Polenta with mushrooms, Creamy.

Why do you pour boiling water on pork belly? ›

boiling water trick

This helps to prep the skin to crackle as its now "pre-cooked" so to speak. Make sure to pat dry with paper towel to further dry afterwards.

Why do you put vinegar on pork belly? ›

White Vinegar helps dry out the skin – but it has a secondary purpose of removing the odour! If you are prepared, place the Pork in the Fridge UNCOVERED overnight – the skin will dry out. When you pre-heat your oven, remove the pork from the fridge and let it return to room temperature.

Why won t my pork belly get crispy? ›

Pork skin has a lot of moisture in it, so we have to make sure it is as dry as possible before we go to crisp the skin. We do this by salting the skin and letting salt draw out some moisture (and also season the skin), and then drying it in the fridge for a day before roasting. High heat.

Do you cook porchetta on high heat first or last? ›

We prefer to start the cooking at a low temperature so the meat stays succulent, then drain off the pan juices and deglaze the pan with a little wine before giving the meat a final blast of heat.

Why is my porchetta skin hard? ›

The heat at which you cook pork cracklins can also cause them to become hard. If the temperature is not high enough, the skin won't crack properly, resulting in a rubbery texture. Make sure to cook pork skin in oil that has a smoke point of 400 degrees.

Why is my Porketta tough? ›

And since overcooking shrinks meat fibers and squeezes our juices, overcooked pork is tough and dry. It's well worth investing in a meat thermometer or slender multi-use digital thermometer, to take away the guesswork .

What cut of pork is closest to pork belly? ›

Louis–Style Spareribs: Regular spareribs are cut close to the belly of the pig (which is also where bacon comes from). Because whole spareribs contain the brisket bone and surrounding meat, each rack can weigh upward of 5 pounds. Some racks of spareribs are so big they barely fit on the grill.

What is a good substitute for porchetta? ›

Porchetta Substitutes:

A full pork loin butterflied and rolled with the same porchetta seasonings is excellent as well and definitely easier to make. The trick when doing a pork loin is to really watch the temp and to not overcook it as it can dry out.

What is another name for a pork belly? ›

What is another word for pork belly?
baconguanciale
pancettalardoon
lardonslab bacon

What does porchetta taste like? ›

Porchetta is a boneless pork roast that was created in central Italy. Porchetta, whether it be alone or with a sandwich is very savory. This means that it's more salty and spicy than it is sweet in flavor. Porchetta is salted during its creation and also has plenty of spices on it for maximum flavor.

References

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