My first porchetta

My first porchetta. Potatoes are added ttoward the end, so they can crisp in the delicious pork fat.

A whole pork belly had been languishing in our downstairs freezer for way too long. With no big gatherings on the horizon, it was time to make my first porchetta. And it proved surprisingly easy and successful.

Porchetta is a rolled-up, skin-on pork belly with something delicious inside. As it cooks, the fat renders while the skin becomes a crispy-crackly treat. If you have a good relationship with a butcher, the interior might be loin meat still attached to the belly. More typically, a partial loin of appropriate size is trimmed to fit inside the belly when it is rolled up. Perhaps that loin will be butterflied and stuffed with fennel fronds, broccoli rabe or even orange peels. But it’s possible your belly will have enough meat left on that you can simply score it, season it, roll it and serve an all-belly porchetta.

We served our porchetta in the style of Taverna Novo, our favorite local restaurant, with potatoes in the center of the all-belly slice and some arugula in tart vinaigrette on the top.

That’s what we planned to do with our 12-pound belly from Rolf’s Pork Store in Albany, NY. But as it was curing (a process that takes at least overnight, and possibly longer) we decided we should experiment with some loin meat so we ended up with a franken-porchetta, all belly at one end and stuffed at the other. Kenji Lopez-Alt, the usually reliable source of our recipe, warns against using loin because today’s hogs are raised too lean. But we thought a few hours being bathed in pork fat and spices might fix that problem.

The result was that the loin meat was every bit as good as the belly, having picked up the flavor of the rub. Absolutely no reason not to do this and expand the amount of deliciousness you will end up with. We had actually purchased a whole boneless loin but decided we didn’t need it because the belly itself had more meat than we expected. We cut most of the loin into stew meat; fortunately we kept a 1.5 lb roast from the large end and that became our stuffing. If you follow this route, be sure the grain of the loin meat is in the long direction (front to back of the belly) rather than crosswise which is what you’d get if you simply tossed in some pork chops.

Cross-section of our frankemn-porchetta. The darker meat in the center is loin; the black layer is the spices that were rubbed into the belly.

Many people are intimidated by the task of cooking a whole turkey or prime rib roast for a holiday meal because the stakes are so high: overcook or undercook it and you’ll have a public disaster on your hands. Porchetta would seem to be a similar challenge, but it really is easy and Kenji’s recipe is nearly fool proof. We cut our cured rolls into three sections and the other two will be enjoyed at future meals, maybe even with company.