Italian · dinner
270m
Total time
8
Servings
680
kcal
hard
Difficulty
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FAQ · Things people ask
Yes. Ask your butcher for a skin-on pork belly slab (about 2 kg) and a separate pork loin. Butterfly the belly open to even its thickness, then roll the loin inside. Most good butchers will do the scoring for you if you ask.
The skin was wet going into the oven. Dry it thoroughly after salting, and pat it completely dry again right before the initial high-heat blast. If the skin is still soft at the end of the cook, slide the porchetta under a broiler on a rack for 5–10 minutes, watching closely.
Use them as a last resort and halve the quantity — dried herbs are more concentrated and turn bitter under a long roast. Fennel seeds are the exception: they're actually preferred dried, and crushing them in a mortar releases more oil than fennel fronds would.
Refrigerate sliced porchetta up to 3 days. Reheat in a dry skillet over medium heat — the oven dries out the meat and the crackling never recovers from steam. Thin slices crisped in a hot pan are genuinely excellent.
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