This homey Italian roast pork, a favorite in my maternal grandfather’s region of Abruzzo, should be juicy and a bit fatty
By: Faith Bahadurian
I recently visited Washington State, with oysters and the Italian cured meats known as salumi on my mind. Oysters because my uncle lives along the Hood Canal, in Lilliwaup, where the Hamma Hamma Company Store grows delicately flavored oysters that appear on menus at top restaurants across the country.
And oysters aplenty we did eat, along with huge Dungeness crabs. But when we headed into Seattle for "city food," we made a beeline to Salumi, the popular lunch spot where Armandino Batali’s family sells his artisanal Italian cured meats to hoards of aficionados who line up out the door.
Mr. Batali’s son, Mario, is, of course, the celebrity chef who attended Rutgers University and started his culinary career in New Brunswick. Armandino was at the store when we visited, and when he heard I was from Princeton, he proudly informed me that Mario’s brother Dana had graduated from Princeton University.
Salumi, located in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square district, is a tiny place. When you crowd into the door, you line right up in front of a glassed-in room hung with cured meats. You work your way up to the counter and order your lunch (or sliced meats to take home), and hope for a spot at the communal tables in the back rooms, surrounded by the bustle of workers coming and going.
Large bottles of red wine sit on the tables. You pour your own and pay up on the honor system. Strangers sit elbow to elbow, happily downing home-style hot entrées and offbeat sandwiches at bargain prices.
When I spied the porchetta sandwich on the chalkboard menu, my fate was sealed. This homey Italian roast pork, a favorite in my maternal grandfather’s region of Abruzzo, should be juicy and a bit fatty. Since we’ve bred most of the flavor and fat out of pork in search of "the other white meat," it is difficult to find good porchetta, but Mr. Batali succeeds using good pork from small producers in Washington and Oregon, including some from Heritage Foods, the company that is an outgrowth of Slow Food, which seeks to preserve means of traditional food production.
A length of baguette was split and smeared with garlic puree and parsley pesto. Chunks of soft pork, seasoned with fennel, and including some fatty pieces, were piled on with cooked onion and green pepper. The first bite was transporting, and even my uncle, who had been protesting that we’d ruin our appetites for dinner, succumbed with moans of contentment.
We also shared a plate of assorted cheeses and sliced meats, including salami, coppa and sopressata. Culatello (a special type of prosciutto), and, for cooking, pancetta and guanciale, were also being sold. Of course, I could not resist purchasing half a finocchiona, Tuscan-style fennel salami, to stuff into my luggage for sharing at home.
It’s hard to let go.
ANTIPASTO DI ROLLATINE
DI SALAMI E CARCIOFI
(Salami and Artichoke Rolls)
from "Food and Memories of Abruzzo,
Italy’s Pastoral Land"
by Anna Teresa Callen (1998, Macmillan)
Serves 6.
One 6-ounce jar marinated artichokes
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
½ tablespoon very fine plain breadcrumbs
12 thin slices salami of your choice
Lettuce leaves
Drain the artichokes and place them in a food processor or blender. Process while adding the mayonnaise and the breadcrumbs until creamy.
Spread the artichoke mixture on the slices of salami and roll. Secure with toothpicks. Serve on lettuce leaves.
For another speedy antipasto, spread the slices of salami with olive paste, found in Italian food stores, instead of the artichoke mixture.
PORCHETTA CASALINGA
(Home-style Porchetta)
adapted from "Food and Memories
of Abruzzo, Italy’s Pastoral Land"
Real porchetta is cooked on a spit in a wood-burning oven and served at room temperature. This version has been adapted for the home cook.
Serves 8.
Pork:
6 to 7 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1½ teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Kosher salt to taste
6 pounds boned fresh pork, preferably from the butt
Skin:
½ cup wine vinegar
½ teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Kosher salt to taste
1 or 2 sheets fresh pork skin, enough to wrap the pork in (can substitute pancetta or bacon if needed)
The day before:
Combine garlic, rosemary, pepper and salt in a small bowl. Rub the meat with mixture. Set meat on a dish, cover, and refrigerate overnight.
Combine the vinegar, rosemary, pepper and salt in a large nonreactive pan. Add the skin to the pan and pour vinegar mixture over, cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next day:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Remove the skin from its marinade, discarding marinade. Wrap the meat in the skin and tie securely with kitchen string. Set the meat on the rack of a roasting pan and roast until the skin starts to color, about 20 minutes. Turn the roast and reduce the heat to 375 degrees. Continue cooking until the skin is quite brown and crackling, about 2 ½ to 3 hours. Turn once in a while.
To make sure the meat is cooked, pierce it deeply in the thickest part with a skewer. If the juices run clear, the meat is done.
Cool 15 minutes before removing the skin. Cut the skin into strips with scissors or shears. Slice the meat and serve the porchetta surrounded by the strips of skin.
For more information about Salumi, visit www.salumicuredmeats.com.

