This is a yummy Italian version of baked pork belly that you can either make on the grill like Ralph did, or in the oven.

Ralph had this years ago at a farmer’s market in Italy on a bun and vowed to make it, and has a few times now for guests. Last night we served it to our neighbours and was fortunate to enjoy it al fresco.

The pork belly was ordered a few weeks in advance from our Saturday market butcher. We picked it up on the Wednesday market and came across a vendor sharing fresh sauerkraut which inspired serving that as an accompaniment. As Ralph makes his sauerkraut with bacon, he went back to our butcher and at first received a puzzled look wondering why on earth he would need bacon for the pork belly.

We planned to serve the pork belly with homemade brioche hamburger buns, but silly me forgot to add warm water to yeast mixture before all the ingredients were combined. Ralph tried to fix it best he could, but instead of plump hamburger buns we ended up with teeny tiny Brötchen. Luckily the grocery store was open to pick up the packaged buns (we would have been out of luck if it was a Sunday). You can also serve this with Oma Marion’s German-Style Warm Potato Salad with Bacon.

The best part about this meal is the leftovers. If you have any.

Ingredients (this served 7 people for dinner, with leftover meat for 4 more buns):

• 3-4kg pork belly with skin
• Chopped fresh sage, thyme, rosemary fennel fronds QB (see pic for what we used)
• 6-8 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• Zest from 2 bio lemons
• 2 tsp black pepper
• Salt QB
• (Combine all of the above  except the salt into a bowl)

Instructions for prepping pork belly:

1. You can do this yourself or ask your butcher: remove the rib bones and save them for another meal.
2. Butterfly the pork belly (see pictures).
3. Remove large pieces of fat that have no meat.
4. Rub both sides of belly with salt (not the skin) and lay skin side down
5. Rub in fresh herb mixture all over meat side.
6. Roll from the end without the skin (see pictures) into a tube. The tube should be mostly covered by the skin when you are finished.  Don’t worry if the skin doesn’t surround it completely.  Tie it together tight with butcher twine (see video).
7. Let it rest for a few hours or overnight in refrigerator.

Instructions for cooking pork belly on grill (need a grill that has burners allowing in-direct heat):

1. Make sure there are drip pans below grill where belly will be placed.
2. Pre-heat grill using burner that is not under drip pans to 220 ° C.
3. Lay the roll with skin-side down on grill above drip pans.
4. Close the lid. Let it heat back up then turn burner down to low and leave for 5-6 hours (depends on your grill- you may need to turn it a bit higher) until the meat measures 180° C. Check belly ½ hour after grilling to make sure fat is rendering.
5. Don’t worry about leaving on grill too long as there’s enough fat that it won’t dry out.
6. Near the end of the cooking time the skin should have browned and started to become crispy.  If not, turn up the heat a bit.
7. Remove ½ to an hour before serving onto a cutting board with a juice groove.
8. When ready to serve, remove all the string, remove the skin (as it’s too hard to cut through)
9. Try to cut it slices but it may fall apart like ours did (see picture).
10. Cut the crackling skin with kitchen or poultry sheers for crackling-loving people and dogs.
11. We served the pork belly on brioche hamburger buns. The accompanying sides were sauerkraut browned in bacon/bacon fat, potato salad, and a fresh green salad with a simple olive oil/balsamic vinegar dressing using lettuce from our garden. Coleslaw would be nice too (especially to add to the bun for a crunch).