Porchetta
Porchetta, an obvious derivative of the word porco, “pork”, is nothing more than what it seems: a roasted pork cooked on a spit for hours at times to create this delicious, moist and flavorful treat available almost everywhere in Italy. Porchetta is the quintessential Italian street food- very rarely you can order it in a restaurant or eat it in a closed space. Porks are roasted in the open air at street fairs, or in the Italian equivalent of Taco Trucks outfitted for the specific purpose of transforming a pig in a delicious treat!
Pretty much every region in central Italy claims this dish as their own. There are Sagre della Porchetta in Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo and as far North as Tuscany. In the area around Rome in May you can venture out to i Castelli and grab a porchetta sandwich from the street vendors before heading to one of the wine pits (choice of word is not casual!) where they only serve local wines. The history behind porchetta is long- it traces back to medieval times, but there is evidence that even Romans prepared porchetta very similarly to the way it’s done today. Every place you’ll have it will claim it’s the real thing, and beware that if you’re sitting in the warmth of a restaurant and sitting down you are probably not getting the real gist of porchetta.
To make porchetta, you start with a big pig- some rule it should be at least 120kg, over 250lb! This is not a suckling pig we’re cooking, it’s the real thing! The pig is carefully a pig is deboned and dressed with abundant rosemary, fennel and garlic, and filled with its own offal minced. It is the cooked over a wood-burning flame for anywhere between 6 and 8 hours. By the time it is done, what really draws you in is the smell- the delicious aroma of porchetta can travel several miles and make you salivate before you even lay your eyes on the object of your desire! You don’t want to mess with porchetta: country bread, and a flask of wine are your only companion to experience this long-lasting Italian tradition!
Notes: First and second images courtesy of Sagra Della Porchetta di Costano
Filed under: Culinary Culture, Traditional Foods, italy
Nice post, Vanessa! Porchetta is one of those things I grew up eating and took for granted. I hope everyone gets to try it some time in his/her life.
The combination of fennel and pork is magical. Any local porchetta you love?
Ah, Sean, you want to beat me to the punch!! I am in full porchetta-tasting- do you want to do a porchetta hunt with me?? Ferry Building would be a natural stop, and I need a partner in crime to taste them all!!
I hear RoliRoti’s porchetta is to die for…
Oh yes, the great porchetta hunt is on. I understand RoliRoti’s is awesome, but it’s not right to judge until we’ve tried them all. You know, to be fair.
Vanessa: I just checked into your sight and saw this great post. Ah, porchetta – one of my all time favorites — and I just heard on the radio that today is National Roast Suckling Pig Day — not quite the same but fairly close. As far as the Bay Area, we had some very nice porchetta a couple of months back at the Fatted Calf at the Oxbow Marketplace in Napa. See also their recipe in this Feb 2008 SF Chron article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/27/FDBUUFODU.DTL
Porchetta at il Cane Rosso is pretty good too. I just love this post, although it’s giving me horrible cravings and I haven’t had breakfast yet…
[...] best part, for a foodie like me, is the chance to try out Donato’s porchetta, along with many other little hors d’ouevres. I am hoping for bruschette with cinghiale (wild [...]
One of the first jobs I had was working as a helper for a catering company. First day on the job and it was my duty to carve the roasted pig for guests. All day I was asked for the skin..YUK! Until I tasted it. That was simply amazing..sort of crackle texture. The slow roasting makes for the most tender meat you’ll ever had. I’m hooked on porchetta.
happy cooking
chris