Chefs Recipe: Suckling Pig Porchetta by Union Street Café – Gordon Ramsay Restaurants

With Father’s Day (Sunday 18th June) on the horizon and dining alfresco at last a very real option, we are delighted to share with you this fantastic roasting recipe from Union Street Cafe’s Davide Degiovanni. First David reveals some of the secrets of a good porchetta, Italy’s favourite way to cook pork.

“Porchetta – deboned and stuffed pork roast – is particularly associated with the cooking of Tuscany, Umbria, the Abruzzo Marche, Lazio and Rome. Traditionally it was made with a whole pig and the stuffing included its offal, but the ready made porchetta you find on sale today tends to be shaped from selected cuts and simply stuffed with herbs. When Davide was growing up in Italy, his family would come together to butcher pigs before Christmas, making bacon, ham and salami from the various cuts. While you may not feel like tackling a whole pig at home, suckling pig porchetta is smaller, easier and faster to prepare. Be warned though – you’ll be eating it all week! Think hot roast on Sunday, antipasto on Monday, sliced for a sandwich on Tuesday, minced for a burger on Wednesday…”

Or invite all the family over for Father’s Day to help polish it off?!

Suckling Pig Porchetta

Ingredients

• 1 x suckling pig, about 6-8kg
• 375ml white wine (3 glasses)
• 70g wild fennel flowers
• 2 branches rosemary
• 1 head of garlic
• Nutmeg
• Rocksalt
• Black peppercorns
• Extra virgin olive oil

Cooking Instructions

1. Debone the pig, removing its leg bones, shoulder bones, rib cage and spine, then trim off any excess fat. Wipe the meat clean as necessary.
2. Meanwhile, boil the wine rapidly in a small saucepan so that the volume of liquid reduces to 30ml or 2 tablespoons. Remove from the heat and cool.
3. Finely chop the fennel flowers, the needles of the rosemary, and the garlic cloves. Add salt, pepper and finely grated nutmeg to taste. Carefully stir the reduced wine into the herb mixture.
4. Fill the cavity of the pork with the herb mixture, then sew it up securely using a trussing needle. Rub the pig all over with olive oil, and season again. Thread it with an oven spit if you have one, alternatively use a large roasting try.
5. Preheat the oven to 130C. Roast the porchetta for about 4 hours, turning the heat up to 210C for the last 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to rest.
6. Sit the pork on a cutting board, carefully release it from the spit (if using) and serve at your leisure, either hot, warm or cold. Porchetta is traditionally thinly sliced.
7. If you are a using a boined loin of pork with the belly still attached, butterfly the loin, and score the skin at regular intervals. Roll the meat into a cylinder once you have spread it with the herb mixture, and tie the length with kitchen string every few centimetres to help it stay together.

UNION STREET CAFE | 47-51 Great Suffolk Street, Southwark, London, SE1 0BS | www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/union-street-cafe/ | 0207 592 7977

Gordon Ramsay’s Union Street Cafe is a lively urban restaurant offering quality Mediterranean Italian artisan food inspired by the laid back glamour casual luxe of Italy.

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