With plenty of garlic, rosemary, and fennel seed, this recipe follows the flavor profile of porchetta, the iconic Italian pork roast.Before roasting, the pork is scored and rubbed with a paste of garlic, herbs, and spices for flavor in every bite. The frenched pork rib roast makes an impressive presentation that’s perfect for an elegant holiday dinner.
Chef Ryan Hardy shared this Italian-inspired pork roast in 2008, back when he ran the kitchen at The Little Nell in Aspen, Colorado. As Lois Smith Brady wrote in a feature accompanying the recipe, “This roast is his idea of the perfect dish: lots of flavor, few ingredients.” The chef first tasted a version of this pork from a street vendor in the Tuscan city of Siena. “It was fatty and sweet, spicy and succulent, smoky and salty,” he says — “all at the same time.”
Pork, Italian-style
For this roast, Hardy draws flavorful inspiration from porchetta, a central Italian specialty. Traditionally, boneless pork loin is butterflied and wrapped around a filling flavored with fennel seed and rosemary — common pairings with pork in Italian cuisine — plus plenty of garlic. The porchetta is often covered with pork belly before being trussed and roasted. Here, Hardy uses bone-in pork loin for a dramatic presentation, though he does sometimes wrap a piece of pork belly around the side — it makes the meat extra juicy.
Notes from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen
This recipe calls for a pork rib roast that has been frenched, meaning the bones have been stripped of meat and fat. Your butcher can do this for you at the counter.
Hardy also likes to use the same herb-and-spice rub on other cuts of pork, including the shoulder and leg.
Suggested Pairing
This succulent loin roast deserves a full-bodied red with enough flavor to stand up to its crisp, spicy crust, such as an Australian Grenache.
Dining and Cooking