How to Make Nopa Porchetta

Enjoy this Tuesday night special at home

Porchetta is a speciality of central Italy. It has many iterations, but is always a fatty, roasted piece of pork that’s been heavily seasoned with herbs, garlic and salt. The prevailing tradition and sentiment of porchetta is a festive one.

At Nopa, we serve ours each Tuesday, which provides us at least one assured weekly feel good moment. Our porchetta consists of pork loins that have been rolled into the pig belly, making a giant roly log of pig and seasoning and fat. It’s roasted until golden brown and crispy bits of pigs skin, the cracklins, are pulled right off, only to end up back on the plate. It’s a delicious monstrosity, but if you’d like, you can take on the more practical pork shoulder version.

Ingredients

We use one pig which feeds about 40 people. With a little notice, most butchers will be able to source the loin and (the skin-on) belly of a pig. It’s easiest to begin with the belly in the shape a rectangle.

For the brine:

12qt of Cold Water

½ C Black Peppercorns

3 lbs salt

7 C brown sugar

1 garlic head cut in half 10 bay leaves

Stir sugar and salt to help dissolve. You may also have to add weight to the porchetta to keep it submerged in the brine.

For the garlic paste:

1 qt peeled garlic add tbsp kosher

1 tsp chili flakes

2 qt evoo

2 bunches rosemary

3 bunches of sage

For directions, continue to this post on Nopalize.com.