Counterfeit Porchetta

In Italy, the term porchetta refers to spit-roasting a deboned and stuffed baby pig seasoned with fennel, garlic, rosemary and lemon. In my kitchen, the term porchetta refers to oven-roasting any cut of pork flavored with the same heady aromatics.

The Italian recipe is authentic, complicated and greatly esteemed throughout the country. My recipe is inauthentic, genuinely easy and greatly esteemed in a small section of Brownstone Brooklyn.

This is the feed-a-crowd, party version of my counterfeit porchetta. It features a pork shoulder, which is the biggest chunk of pig one can reliably find in any supermarket. I prefer to use a bone-in shoulder, but boneless works, too. Either way, it’s brawny, earthy, run through with flavorful fat and, best of all, economical, which comes in handy when you need a lot of meat in one go.


Porchetta Pork Roast
By Melissa Clark


Pork shoulder is also particularly unfussy to cook. Your aim here is tender, juicy meat underneath a crackling amber crust that is flecked with the garlicky green herb and fennel-scented paste. How to achieve this is a matter of some debate.

Some swear by braising the meat in liquid, then crisping the skin. Some start out roasting low and slow, then raise the heat at the end. Some brown the skin in oil on the stove, then roast. All of these methods work well. But I always return to what I think is the simplest and most convenient: Start the meat in a hot oven until the fat under the skin starts to render, then turn down the heat and forget about it all afternoon.


The exact timing will depend upon the shape of your roast, its temperature when it went into the oven and the type of pan you use. But don’t worry about making sure you pull the meat from the oven as your guests arrive. Pork shoulder roasts are forgiving. You can roast it earlier in the day, and let it sit covered at room temperature for a couple of hours. About 30 minutes before serving, crisp the skin in a 400-degree oven until it starts to glisten.

Then let your guests ooh and ahh before carving it. And don’t forget to save the bone for soup.

If you’re lucky enough to have any leftovers, they can be tossed with barbecue sauce or hot sauce and made into not very authentic pulled pork sandwiches for lunch the next day. It’s the most appropriate thing to do with leftover fake porchetta. Which is, after all, genuinely delicious.


Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/dining/a-porchetta-pork-roast-recipe.html?_r=0