Porchetta

One evening in Italy, I thought long and hard about how to prepare porchetta (roast pork), but could not decide until we had visited Villa Tereze. The next Saturday, we went to the local butcher shop and bought some porchetta, and prepared an old recipe. It was so good that it had to be made. And here it is – not with wild fennel, as in Italy, but my style with nuts. It is heavenly right from the oven, as well as heated for leftovers the following days.

Ingredients

2 kg pork belly
8 celery stalks
4 head garlic, skin on
1 rosemary sprig
20 ml olive oil for cooking
coarse sea salt to taste
1 tbsp freshly-ground black pepper

filling:
2 tsp fennel seeds
30 g garlic, peeled
1 orange zest, finely grated
1 lemon zest, finely grated
2 tsp coarse salt
small handful oregano leaves
1 tbsp thyme leaves
70 g hazelnuts
130 g soft, dried cranberries
1 tsp caraway
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
30 ml mild olive oil

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 220°. Place celery and garlic with a sprig of rosemary in a ceramic baking dish.

Butterfly your pork belly by cutting it down the middle, but not all the way through (leave 2‒3 cm), and opening it up like a book. Gently score the meat, crisscross, with a sharp knife.

Mix all the filling ingredients in a bowl. Rub the meat with oil. Place the filling on the meat and rub it in. Staring from the end without the skin, roll the meat as tightly as possible, leaving the skin on the outside of the roll. Tie the roll tightly (the meat will shrink while cooking, so tie tighter than you think is needed). Place in the baking dish, skin side up. Rub with oil and salt and pepper. Place in the centre of the oven to roast for 30 minutes. Lower the temp to 170 and roast for 5 hours. A half hour before removing from oven, baste with pan drippings. Remove from oven and serve with your choice of sides.