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Thomas Odermatt takes his mobile rotisserie RoliRoti all over the Bay Area throughout the week. But on Thursdays and Saturdays, he makes a special trip to the SF Ferry Building Farmers Market to serve up boned and rolled porchetta. Tucked inside crusty bread, slices of porchetta make nice with onion or fennel jam. Here's the recipe, courtesy of the upcoming The Food Truck Cookbook by John T. Edge (Workman), due out later this spring.
Serves 10 to 12
1 tablespoon finely minced lemon zest
5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons fennel seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
4 dried bay leaves, crumbled
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons pinot grigio or similar dry white wine
2 pounds boneless pork loin
1 pork belly (about 5 pounds), with fat and skin on
1. Place the lemon zest and juice, garlic, rosemary, toasted fennel seeds, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and pinot grigio in a small bowl, and mix until a crumbly paste forms.
2. Working with a sharp knife, cut back the fat of the pork loin, making sure not to cut into the loin meat. Rub the pork belly inside and out evenly with herb paste. Put the pork loin inside the pork belly, and then tie the roast crosswise at 2-inch intervals with butcher's string. Make sure you use an even tension when tying so that the porchetta will cook evenly. Cover the porchetta with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 24 hours to let it absorb the flavor of the herb paste.
3. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
4. Place the porchetta on a rack in a roasting pan, seam side up. Bake the porchetta for 30 minutes, and then lower the temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking the porchetta until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thicket part of the meat registers almost 140 degrees, 1 to 1 1/2 hours longer. For the past 5 minutes of cooking, place the porchetta under the broiler to crisp the skin, rotating the porchetta until it is golden brown.
5. Remove the porchetta from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes before serving. Then remove and discard the string, and the carve the porchetta into 1/2-inch slices.