Would you take advice on cooking pork from a Jewish girl (me)? Maybe not. How about advice from the author of multiple Italian cookbooks?
Last weekend I recreated Domenica Marchetti's porchetta from her latest cookbook, Preserving Italy.
After attending Domenica's workshop in the summer, I had the porchetta salt and the cookbook and decided to try my hand at this relatively easy recipe of butterflied pork butt seasoned with salt, layered with sauteed fennel and garlic (a LOT of garlic), rolled, rested overnight in the refrigerator and roasted slow and low.
I had a lot of faith in this recipe because 1) Domenica made it for the workshop and it turned out awesome 2) all of the recipes I've made from Domenica's cookbooks have always turned out great.
First, I'm obsessed with the photo of the salt. Second, I would suggest you actually grind the pepper instead of using whole peppercorns because I did not like biting into them while eating porchetta. The salt mix is made up of fennel seeds, coarse sea salt, grated lemon zest, rosemary, and peppercorns.
Third, my grocery store did not have fennel (!!), so I used 2 leeks. For the garlic, the recipe calls for 12 cloves: I highly recommend you use a mini food processor to chop the garlic and be ready for the aroma to invade every inch of your condo.
Fourth: I asked the butcher in my grocery store to butterfly or roll out the pork butt. He left way too much fat and connecting tissues. I removed some, but unfortunately not enough.
Fifth, I used reusable silicone ties instead of kitchen twine to hold porchetta together.
The final results (scroll to the top), were delicious. Instead of making a sandwich, as Domenica suggests in the book, I ate my porchetta with a simple salad of mixed greens, thinly sliced radishes, snow peas and a combination of lemon juice and olive oil.
I had A LOT of leftovers, which per Domenica's suggestion I turned into a meat sauce by simmering porchetta in a mixture of sauteed carrots, onions, celery and tomato sauce.
Here's a similar recipe from Domenica's Rustic Italian cookbook.
0 comments:
Post a Comment