Porchetta-Style Roast Pork

Porchetta-Style Roast Pork
Photo: Armando Rafael
Prep Time:
25 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 15 mins
Servings:
4

This savory Porchetta-Style Roast Pork is the perfect focus of any meal. Thinly slice any leftover roast pork and serve on crusty ciabatta for sandwiches the next day.

Ingredients

  • 4 cloves garlic, smashed

  • 2 tablespoons fennel seeds, toasted

  • 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary

  • 1 small lemon, zested, then halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

  • 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

  • 1 pork loin (2 ¼ pounds), trimmed

  • 8 ounces pancetta, thinly sliced

  • 1 pound small fingerling potatoes, halved

  • 1 sweet yellow onion (12 ounces), cut into eighths

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees with rack in center. In a food processor, combine garlic, fennel seeds, rosemary, lemon zest, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 3 tablespoons oil; pulse to a paste. Pat pork dry. On a rimmed baking sheet, rub pork all over with garlic mixture and wrap with pancetta, overlapping slightly; secure with twine at 2-inch intervals.

  2. Toss potatoes, onion, and lemon slices with remaining 3 tablespoons oil. Season with salt and pepper; scatter around pork. Drizzle with 1/3 cup water; roast, basting with juices, until pancetta is crisp and a thermometer inserted in thickest part of meat registers 138 degrees, 40 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board; tent with foil.

  3. Return sheet to oven and continue to roast vegetables, tossing once, 10 minutes more. Remove strings from pork and slice. Serve, alongside vegetables, and drizzled with pan juices.

Cook's Notes

If you don't have a mini-prep, just finely chop the ingredients by hand or crush to a paste in a mortar and pestle. Pork can be rubbed with fennel paste, wrapped in pancetta, and refrigerated up to 1 day.

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