So there I was thinking of having
some friends over for dinner and the question arose, as it always does, what am
I going to feed these folks? I started to think about the food that I have had
out and if anything struck me. I was taken back to a meal that I had at the
Clay Pigeon bistro and I had it.... Porchetta. I started moving through my cook
books and found a few recipes and managed to cobble out one of my own. Porchetta
is a pork loin that is stuffed with herbs and then marinated in wine. It is
then roasted. It is super tasty and is killer on sandwiches the next day. Now I
had an epic fail in making this recipe in that the crackling did not turn out
at all. I am sorry to all who had to push it to the side of their plate and I
am even sorrier to the people who scarfed it down only to realize that it
sucked. It did not crisp up the way I wanted it to, so to fix it I recommend removing
the skin and frying it further so it becomes that crispy awesome that you want
it to be. So here is Porchetta, it is totally worth giving a go.
Porchetta
to the tune of..... The whole new Mumford & Sons album. You got the time.
A big chunk
of pork loin, ribs removed and trimmed out so that it lays flat and is easily
rolled. Your butcher will do this for you if you don’t want to do it yourself.
Rosemary,
stalks removed
Thyme,
stalks removed
7 cloves of
garlic minced
½ cup olive oil, the best that you have
1 bottle of
red wine, one that you would drink on its own
-In a
blender or food processor blend your rosemary, thyme, garlic and oil until you
get a thin sort of paste.
-Lay out
your pork in a pan, skin side down and then spread the paste over the meat,
coating evenly.
-Add the
wine to the pan until it is almost all of the way up the sides of your meat.
-Cover and
let marinate for 2 days in your fridge at the very least.
-Preheat
your oven 375 degrees. Remove the pork from the marinade and roll and tie. As
my Grand would say, like a jelly roll.
-Roast in
the oven until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. Let it rest and
then slice it up. I served mine with roasted root vegetables. It was pretty
darn tasty. So give it a go.
Johnny, do you recommend taking the skin off before or after you roast it?
ReplyDeleteI would lean more towards doing after as you can crisp up the skin as you are letting the meat rest and you still get all of the pork fatty goodness while you are roasting.
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