May 2010 - Tuscan Roast Pork Belly

This is going to be a quick post as I am exhausted tonight but I really need to get this posted before the end of the night so that it is still posted in May.

There was really only one recipe that I wanted to try in issue #93 and that was Valli Little's Tuscan Roast Pork Belly. There are others but none that I instantly wanted to make as much. I had never actually roasted a piece of pork belly before but this was just glorious. The flavours were beautiful, it was sweet and almost falling apart. The skin turned in to wonderful crackling and the gravy the was so good with the inclusion of marsala. I had my grandparents around for dinner and served it with roasted potato, beets and choko. It was just great.

Tuscan Roast Pork Belly

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 2.5 kg piece boneless pork belly (skin on and scored)
  
• 2 rosemary sprigs, leaves picked
• 1 tbps fennel seeds
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 4 garlic cloves
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
• 2 cups (5oo ml) dry white wine
• 2 onions, thinly sliced
  
• 2 tbsp flour
  
• 2 cups (500 ml) chicken stock
  
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) marsala

Method

• Place pork on a rack in the sink and pour over a kettle full of boiling water. (Valli said this helps to crisp the crackling). Pat dry.
  
• Pound rosemary, fennel seeds, zest and garlic in a motar and pestle until you have a paste.
• Add oil and mix to combine.
  
• Rub over pork and marinate for at least 4 hours.
  
• Preheat oven to 220 C.
  
• Rub pork with 2 tbsp of salt and roast for 30 minutes.
  
• Remove from oven, reduce heat to 160 C, add wine to the pan and return to oven for 1 hour.
  
• Remove from oven lift meat and scatter onions and lay meat over the onions. Return to the oven for another hour.
  
• Remove pork from the pan cover with foil and let rest for 15 minute.
• Drain off all but 2 tbsp of fat.
  
• Meanwhile, add flour to the pan and cook on the stove over a medium heat for 1 - 2 minutes stirring to lift all the pan juices.
• Add stock and marsala and reduce until desired thickness.
  
• Thickly slice pork (mine pretty much fell apart) and serve with the gravy and roast vegetables.