the great porchetta
**This might not be a good post for vegetarians or vegans to read. It’s very meat/pork focused.
I’ve been to Italy before but I didn’t know what Porchetta was until I visited the SF Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. At that Farmer’s Market (on Thursdays and Saturdays) Roli Roti serves up an amazing Pork Porchetta Sandwich. (Just FYI, the “ch” is pronounced like a “k”.) A lot of people miss out on the Porchetta sandwich and go for the Rotisserie chicken. Major rookie mistake. A mistake I committed several times until I tried the Porchetta. Then never again. I will never pass up Porchetta again. Although I will admit the Roasted Pork Knuckle tempts me every time. I don’t think it’s good to eat too many pork knuckles. I should probably limit myself to 2 pork knuckles a year. Just to be safe.
So what makes the sandwich so good? Well first of all, I think every good sandwich starts on good bread. Roli Roti know this and they do it right. They serve their sandwiches on yummy Acme Bread (yay artisan bread! weird, they don’t have a proper website). Okay and do you see all that roasted pork juice and pork bits on the cutting board in the picture at the top of this post? They take the bread and soak up all the juices by rubbing it on the cutting board. I almost want to squeal when I watch them do this. They put on a generous hunks of porchetta on the bread. They top it with crispy, beautiful layers of pork skin. Then they put a LOAD of fresh arugula on top. They then smear a slightly sweet onion marmalade on the other piece of bread, close the sandwich, smush it down a bit and cut it in half. It’s a pretty rustic (read: simple) sandwich. No pears and brie here, people. But man is it amazing. It’s got to be one of my top ten favorite things to eat in life.
So a few weeks ago, I get an email from one of my neighbors titled “Porchetta Event”. Intrigued by the subject line, I read on to find out that it’s an event hosted by Canvas Underground of the Ghetto Gourmet dining party network. Wait a sec, Ghetto Gourmet? Didn’t I blog about this… oh, I don’t know, in 2007? Yes I did! Here’s the post. So here was an opportunity to finally try out a Ghetto Gourmet dining experience, the menu was titled “The Great Porchetta” and it was hosted by my next door neighbors! It was a no brainer. I signed up right away.
Here was the menu for the night:
First Course: Fresh Mozzarella Wrapped with Grilled Summer Squash, Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil Vinaigrette
Second Course: Smoked Garlic Soup with Gypsy Pepper Cream
Third Course: Porchetta Marinated with Rosemary and Sage, Creamy Polenta, Slow Cooked Greens
Fourth Course: Roasted Peaches and Nectarines, Chestnut Honey Ice Cream, Toasted Almond Biscotti
Here are some photo/video highlights:
We walked into the loft to find Enzo, the butcher, deboning the pig. It was kind of shocking, a little grotesque, but then really, really fascinating. Enzo is also a really cool old school Italian guy so it was fun to listen to him talk about his craft.
Table Settings
There was lots and lots of wine.
La Caja China
Cooking instructions on the side of the roasting box
Roasting peaches on top of La Caja China.
Towards the end of the cooking time, they removed the foil and cut slits to let the skin get crispy. The bad focusing is my fault, not the camera’s.
Here it is on the cutting board. Enzo’s untying the string and then it’s ready to plate.
First Course: Fresh Mozzarella Wrapped with Grilled Summer Squash, Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil Vinaigrette
Second Course: Smoked Garlic Soup with Gypsy Pepper Cream
Third Course: Porchetta Marinated with Rosemary and Sage, Creamy Polenta, Slow Cooked Greens
Fourth Course: Roasted Peaches and Nectarines, Chestnut Honey Ice Cream, Toasted Almond Biscotti
Chef Peter Jackson answers some questions after dinner
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As you can see, it was a pretty great event. Can’t wait to go to another one!
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