Porchetta

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Porchetta, originating from central Italy, is a rolled and stuffed pork joint. Regional variations on the dish exist with the stuffing varying from herbs through to chopped entrails and garlic. Porchetta is regarded as a celebratory dish.

This version steps slightly away from the traditional recipes and adds fruit and pine nuts to the traditional herbs. The porchetta is then cooked on the Big Green Egg to achieve a succulent mouth watering and visually stunning dish.

The pork belly needs to be top quality and the skin dry. Ask your butcher to score the skin lengthways along the joint so that when it's rolled the cuts allow slices of the porchetta to be cut easily. Avoid pre-packed pork as you'll find it almost impossible to get the skin to crackle as it will be too moist.

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Prep Time 30

Cook Time 4 15

Resting Time 30

Total Time 5 15

Servings: 6 people

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients Equipment Method Video

Ingredients

2 kg pork belly with the ribs removed scored down the joint's skin
100 g raisins
100 g dried apricots
75 g pine nuts
5-10 sage leaves coarsely chopped
½ bunch flat leaf parsley coarsely chopped
200 g spiced sausage meat or 4 sausages with the skins removed
4 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
olive oil
Maldon salt
1 tsp black pepper coarsely ground

Equipment

Grill Temperature

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Surfaces

An icon of the Big Green Egg ConvEGGtor, which used to be called a plate setter

Method

Unpack your pork belly and if possible leave uncovered in your fridge overnight, skin side up to dry a little.
To prepare the porchetta, place your pork belly skin side down onto a chopping board.
Place your sausage meat all the way down the long side of your joint.
Sprinkle on the raisins, apricots, pine nuts, sage, parsley, black pepper and garlic making sure they cover the full width of the belly.
Roll your pork belly, normally the edges will meet when you roll it tightly.
Tie your rolled pork belly firmly, any knot will do as long as it is kept tightly rolled, even a granny knot works. You might want to get some help just to hold the porchetta nice and tight.

If you are cooking without a rotisserie

Light your Big Green Egg and get it to a cooking temperature of 250°C using an indirect setup (ConvEGGtor in with the feet up and the stainless steel grid on top).
Place your porchetta onto a V-Rack in a drip pan. Fill the drip pan with 750ml of water, keeping the level below that of the meat.
Rub the skin of the porchetta with a generous amount of olive oil and then with lots of Maldon sea salt. This will help it form great crackling.
Place into your Big Green Egg remembering to burp it. This initial hot blast at 250°C will help crackle the skin.
After 15 minutes of cooking adjust the vents to lower the temperature to around 180°C.
Cook your porchetta for a further 4 hours until the internal temperature is about 88°C. Checking every hour or so whether the water in the drip pan needs topping up, just don't let it boil dry!
When your porchetta is golden take off and rest for a minimum of 30 minutes covered in foil.
Mix a tablespoon or two of cornflour with water to form a paste before adding to the juices in the drip pan. Add some white wine if you like and some liquid vegetable stock. This will make a fantastic gravy. Heat the pan over a hob to cook and thicken.

If you are cooking with a rotisserie (total cook time around 5 hours)

Light your Egg and set it to 140°C with your rotisserie setup.
Push your rotisserie rod through the centre of you porchetta and secure.
Place on to the Egg and cook until the internal temperature is about 88°C. This took about 4.5 hours for me. I measure this with a Meater+.
Now turn up your Egg to 220°C and cook for a further 20-30 minutes. During this period your pork skin will start to crackle. Watch it every 5 or so mins as it will go from crackled to burnt very quickly.