Stuffed Porchetta

Porchetta combines the best of British rare breed with it’s continental inspiration.

Porchetta is a speciality from the Umbrian region of Italy. It is a whole suckling pig boned, rolled and stuffed with fresh herbs and a little garlic. Porchetta is a unique product and makes an excellent centrepiece.

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 3kg Unstuffed Porchetta
• Salt & Pepper

For the stuffing

• 2 onions, peeled and finely diced
• Olive oil
• 200g chicken livers, cleaned and chopped
• 200g pork mince
• 75g pine nuts
• 100g raisins
• ½ bunch of fresh sage, leaves picked and chopped
• ½ bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped
• 1 glass red wine, plus a bit extra for the stuffing
• 8 carrots

Method

Preheat your oven to 200C. Lay the porchetta on a board, skin-side down, and season well with salt and pepper. Massage this seasoning all over the meat.

Put a large pan on a medium heat and fry your diced onion with the olive oil for about 10 minutes and when it’s softened but not coloured, turn the heat down to low and add the chopped chicken livers and pork mince. Use a wooden spoon to break the mince up and mix everything together. Add the pine nuts, raisins, chopped sage and parsley, then season with a good sprinkle of salt and pepper. Pour in the red wine, give everything a good stir then take your pan off the heat. You don’t want to cook the meat now, you just want to get a good mix of flavours going so you have a delicious stuffing.

Put the stuffing in a bowl and put it to one side to cool down. Once your stuffing has completely cooled, spoon all of it down the middle of the opened shoulder. Roll the meat up quite tightly then tie it up as tightly as you can with 4 or 5 pieces of string. Drizzle all over with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and rub the seasoning all over the skin to help it turn into delicious crackling. Lay your carrots across the middle of the roasting tray and put the meat on top. Pour your glass of red or mulled wine and a glass of water in the bottom of the tray then put your meat in the oven.