Porchetta sandwich with salsa verde

This was my first trial of an oven roasted porchetta sandwich with salsa verde, grated caciocavallo, on a sourdough sesame roll. Local cheese from Jersey Cheese and pork sourced from NK Prime Meats. There are definitely a few tweaks to be made on future iterations but overall pretty satisfied with version 1.0.

You’ll find countless porchetta recipes that all use different cuts of pork (from pork shoulder to pork belly) but the traditional method uses a large section of pork belly with the ribs removed and the loin still attached. If you can’t find a butcher who can prepare this more specialized cut for you, a compromise would be taking a skin-on cut of pork belly and a piece of pork loin, and working backwards to recreate the original cut. In the video below, you can watch the exact process of how the meat was broken down and rolled together with a blend of aromatics.

The filling:

Finely dice fennel fronds, rosemary, sage, and garlic and mix together in a medium size mixing bowl. Add dried & crushed hot chili flakes to taste. Add zest of one lemon. Add 2 teaspoons of dried fennel seed powder, salt and pepper. Add oil oil so the entire mixture comes together like a thick paste. 

Remove the skin from the belly and set aside for later. Next cut the loin to the exact size of the belly and butterfly it open to maximize the surface area of the meat. Set the loin piece aside and spread the aromatic filling all over the surface of the pork belly, fat side down. Lay in the butterflied loin piece and generously spread more of the filling all over the meat. Carefully roll up the belly and loin and position with fat side facing up. Rub more paste all over the top before laying on the piece of skin that was previously removed. 

Using butcher's twine, you want to carefully truss the porchetta every few inches so that the whole piece is secure during cooking. Using a sharp boning knife, make small punctures all over the surface of the skin so that the fat renders out during cooking. Wrap porchetta and refrigerate for 6 hours to overnight. Allow to sit out at room temperature before putting it into the oven to allow the meat to relax, yielding a more tender piece of meat.

Roasting:

Set porchetta into a roasting pan with rack to keep the meat elevated during cooking. Cook for 40 minutes at 475F before lowering the temperature down to 300F for another 2 - 4 hours until the internal temperature reads 155F. The skin should puff up as it cooks and result in an airy, crispy texture. If skin still feels rubbery, use the broiler (with a very careful eye not to burn it) to finish off the skin before removing from the oven. Allow the meat to rest 30 minutes before slicing. 

Salsa Verde:

Using a food processor, blend together two bunches of parsley, garlic, a few spoonfuls of capers, 3 fillets of anchovies, juice of one lemon, a few splashes of white vinegar, and a few glugs of olive oil.

Porchetta Sandwich:

Slice porchetta in thin slices and set aside some of the crispy skin. Layer meat on a freshly baked sourdough sesame roll (recipe here) and top with salsa verde and freshly grated caciocavallo cheese (or provolone).