You need to start this the day before but it’s surprisingly easy and the results are amazing. A great barbecue dish to serve a crowd and most of the work is done beforehand. Ours was too big to fit in the oven so we sliced it into two which made it much more manageable.
Wine Suggestion: Quite often we’d suggest a wine with good acidity to cut through the richness of this dish, and we wouldn’t be wrong, with a number od Chardonnays coming to mind. However, instead of cutting through the richness we tried accentuating it and playing with the phenolics (white wine tannins) and drank Jean-Michel Gerin’s La Champine Viognier from the Northern Rhône valley. Grown on vineyards above Condrieu this is accessible and yet still heady, slightly oily and rich with stone fruit flavours and character. It always pays to think outside the box every now and again.
Fennel and ‘Nduja Spiced Porchetta – serves 6 to 8
- 3kg belly of pork, boned and skin scored and butterflied, your butcher will do this for you
FOR THE SEASONING:
- 3 tsp salt
- 50g fennel seeds
- 25g cracked black pepper
- 10 sage leaves
FOR THE STUFFING:
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 onions, chopped
- ½ fennel bulb, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
- 100g pine nuts, toasted
- 100g pitted green olives, sliced
- 175g ‘nduja
Make the sfuffing first as you need to leave it to cool. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the onions and fennel for about 10 minutes or until softened and golden brown, add the garlic after about 5 minutes. Stir in the pine nuts, olives and ‘nduja and warm through briefly. Spoon onto a tray and leave to cool.
Lay the pork skin side down on a board and open up flat.
To make the seasoning, mix the the salt, fennel seeds and cracked pepper together in a bowl. Sprinkle the rub evenly over the pork and scatter the sage leaves on top. Fold the belly over to enclose the seasoning, then cover and chill for an hour in the fridge.
Lay the pork belly back onto the board and open up to expose the seasoning. Spread the stuffing evenly over the surface, leaving a border at the edges.
Roll the meat up tightly and tie with kitchen string at 4cm intervals, starting in the middle. You need to tie it firmly but careful not to squeeze out the stuffing. Put onto a tray and leave overnight in the fridge. If your pork is too big you can carefully slice through the middle to give two pieces.
The next day, take the pork out the fridge at least 1 hour before you want to start cooking.
Preheat the oven to 160C/Fan 140C/Gas 3.
Put the pork onto a baking tray and cook in the oven for 3½ hours.
Near the end of the cooking time, get your barbecue on and get it ready to cook on. Transfer the pork to the barbecue and cook for another hour. Roll it over onto the fat side at the end to crisp up the crackling. Transfer to a platter and leave to rest for 15-20 minutes, then carve into thick slices.
(Original recipe from Outdoor Cooking by Tom Kerridge, Bloomsbury Absolute, 2021.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 