ITALIAN PORCHETTA SANDWICH

ITALIAN PORCHETTA SANDWICH
Lana found this luscious recipe on an Italian Food Blog and this is
my version of the “best sandwich you might ever have!”. A traditional Porchetta Sandwich is uniquely delicious, and considered difficult to replicate at home without roasting your own pig. But, my method of
oven roasting a pork butt that has been stuffed with the same ingredients used to flavor the pork of Italy is a pretty fabulous stand-in.

This recipe creates a pork sandwich very similar to an Italian Pork Panini, but with much less effort. You can ask your butcher to butterfly the pork roast for you to simplify the preparation. I use crusty ciabatta rolls but any top quality crusty roll would work well here. The pork is so flavorful that you really don’t need any other embellishment, but I like to top the pork with a pile of fried onions (and with spicy peppers packed in oil, if you like them!).

One 4-Pound Pork Butt
2 Tablespoons fennel seeds
6 whole, peeled garlic cloves
3 Tablespoons freshly chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon freshly chopped sage
Salt & freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup red wine
12 ounces sliced pancetta
12 crusty Italian Rolls

Either butterfly the pork yourself, or ask your butcher to do it for you.
The pork roast, when open, should be a rectangle no more than 1 inch thick. Place the fennel seed, garlic, rosemary, sage, salt, pepper, wine and pancetta in a food processor and blend until well mixed. Spread the pancetta mixture evenly over the opened pork butt. Roll the pork up firmly, and tie with kitchen twine in four places to hold the pork together. Wrap the pork tightly in aluminum foil and refrigerate it for 12 hours or up to two days.

Preheat the oven to 250°F. Place the pork, still wrapped in the foil, in a large roasting pan and bake for 5 hours. Unwrap the pork and turn on the broiler. Brown the pork evenly all over then remove from the oven, cover with foil and let rest 15 minutes. Warm the rolls. Cut the twine from the roast and cut the pork into 1/4-inch thick slices. Place slices of the pork on the warm rolls and spoon a little of the pan juices onto each sandwich. Serve the sandwiches topped with fried onions.

Serves 12