One of my all-time favorite street foods in San Francisco is
Roli Roti’s famous porchetta sandwich, served at the Ferry Plaza Farmers
Market. For those of you not familiar with the perfection that is the porchetta, it’s a loin,
and possibly other cuts of heavily seasoned pig parts, wrapped inside a pork
belly, which is then roasted until the inside is tender, and the outside is
crispy and crackling.
It’s then sliced and served on a crusty roll with salsa
verde.
It’s insanely good, and something I’ve always wanted to try doing at
home. Of course, a real porchetta feeds like 20 people, so I wanted a
version that would be better suited for a smaller group.
I decided to try using
a small pork shoulder roast. The plan was to mimic the same flavors, but cook
it more like pork loin, instead of the usual fork tender, falling apart state
we associate with this cut. Pulled pork was not what I was after here.
It worked wonderfully, although you do need to slice it nice and
thin. We’re only cooking this to 145 F. which is not high enough a
temperature to break down all that connective tissue. All in all, I thought it
was a very successful experiment, especially when you consider how much we
scaled this down.
What it didn’t feature however, was that crispy skin, also
known as “the best part.” I wish I’d thought of it before I finished the video, but
what I should have done was fried up some diced pancetta (un-smoked Italian
bacon) until it was perfectly crispy, and topped the sandwich with that! That
would have put this already fine faux-porchetta over the top! I hope
you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
and slashes made all over the connective tissues
internal temp of 145 F.
Bonus How to Butterfly Meat for Rolling Video!
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