Move over turkey, and make room for this stunning stuffed pork dish, an Irish interpretation of an Italian classic. It is from And for Mains, the cookbook written by chef and restaurateur Gaz Smith and butcher Rick Higgins, which last month won the Chefs & Restaurants category of the prestigious IACP Cookbook Awards 2022 in the US. The recipe is credited to Smith and Higgins’ pal Barry Stephens, who runs the legendary 147 Deli on Parnell Street in Dublin 1.
In the book, Barry says: “You want to keep a porchetta really simple – you don’t want to put much in the way of it. I don’t even know if mine is a traditional porchetta stuffing, but it’s really good. And everything is better with stuffing, right? I want this stuffing to really punch you in the face with flavour. It’s got to go toe to toe with three kilos of pork and still be tasty enough for sandwiches the following day if there are any leftovers – and that’s a big if.
“You can eat this porchetta as is, but it works so well in a sandwich. I’d use nice bread, good butter and maybe some really thinly sliced fennel tossed in apple cider vinegar and a little bit of watercress.” Sounds like the perfect St Stephen’s day sandwich.
Here is the recipe, plus a few more pork favourites from the Irish Times archive. If you like the sound of And for Mains, there are more recipes from the book here.
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Recipe: Barry’s porchetta
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