Porchetta is a traditional Italian dish of spice-infused boneless pork roast that is slow-roasted and usually sliced and served in a sandwich. The typical Italian spices for this recipe would be fennel, lemon, rosemary, sage, garlic, and oregano.
In SOUTH BEACH LOVE, Chef Tony gives Italian porchetta a twist by using typical Cuban spices and I’m sharing that recipe with you today!
Ingredients:
5-8 navel oranges
5 lemons
5 limes
3-4 Seville (aka Sour) Oranges
3 pink grapefruit
1 cup minced garlic
Ground cumin
3-4 bay leaves
1 (4- to 7-pound) pork belly, skin-on
1 (4- to 5-pound) pork loin
1 cup chopped Italian parsley
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Butcher’s twine cut into 18″-24″ lengths
Directions:
Juice all the above citrus into a large pot.
The citrus mix should be sour, but with a strong hit of sweet (the navel oranges and grapefruit really help with that). You should have enough citrus juice to fully cover your pieces of pork loin and pork belly. Once you’ve tasted the sweet/sour mix, then add 3 to 4 bay leaves, about a half cup of garlic and about 1/4 cup of cumin. Mix this all up.
Place the pork belly skin-side up on a clean work surface and carefully cut slits in a diamond pattern on the skin side.
Place the pork loin on a clean work surface and with your knife, cut along the length of the pork loin and butterfly it. It should almost be like you are opening a book once you butterfly it.
Place the pork loin and belly in the citrus marinade you made earlier and let it marinate for at least 2 to 3 hours. You can even let it marinate overnight so the flavors really work in.
Right before you remove the pork from the marinade, mix up the chopped parsley, olive oil, and remaining 1/2 cup garlic into a paste.
Remove the pork loin and belly from the marinade and pat dry. Reserve about 2 cups of the marinade for basting.
Spread the pork loin on a clean work surface and spread 1/2 of the parsley/garlic paste on the inside of the pork loin. Roll up the pork loin.
Spread the pork belly, skin side down, on a clean work surface. Since you need to tie it, I put the lengths of butcher’s twine down on the work surface and place the pork belly on it. Spread the remaining parsley/garlic paste on the inside of the pork belly.
Place the pork loin at one end of the pork belly. Roll the pork belly around the pork loin and tie the twine around the roll to hold it together. Snip off any excess twine. Season with salt and pepper.
Preheat the oven to 450.
Place the roll on a greased baking dish and place into the hot oven. Cook for about 20 minutes until pork skin is getting crackly.
Lower heat to 325 and baste. Only baste once or twice in the first hour of cooking, but not for the last hour of cooking since you want the pork skin to be crackly. Check internal temperature of pork loin. It should be 135 degrees. Remove from oven and tent with foil. Let it rest for 20-30 minutes.
Place cooked porchetta on a clean cutting board and thinly slice. Serve on crusty Italian bread.
