Perfect porchetta

We’ve just had this for Sunday dinner.

Here’s how to make it:

You need a piece of boneless pork belly, herbs – I used rosemary, oregano, thyme and flat-leaved parsley – onion, garlic, pine nuts, sausage meat, raisins, olive oil, black pepper, salt, carrots, red wine and water.

To be honest, the amounts you need of everything apart from the pork will depend on the size of the piece of meat and also your personal tastes. It’s a very forgiving recipe!

Chop onion and crush garlic, fry in olive oil till softened. Add herbs, pine nuts and raisins, salt and pepper to taste and then add a glug of red wine. Mix well. Leave to cool and mix with sausage meat.

Light oven and heat at full blast for about 30 minutes.

While oven is heating, season meat side of pork and then spread on stuffing. Roll loosely and tie up tightly.

Rub olive oil, salt and black pepper onto rolled meat.

Place on carrots in a baking tin and add a glass of water and a glass of red wine to the bottom of the tin.

Place in oven for 30 minutes then reduce heat to gas mark 4 – dunno what that is in electric so Google it.

Cook for about two hours. This piece of meat weighed about 1.5 kg stuffed, so it’s about 40 minutes a pound. Whatever you do, if you want crackling that you’d sell your granny for then overcook rather than undercook it!

Leave to rest for about 15 minutes then enjoy the combination of succulent, garlicky, herbed meat and well-seasoned crackling.

I served it with boiled new potatoes and peas. It’s very rich, so simple accompaniments seem to work well.

Delicious!