Italian Porchetta (All-Belly Pork Roast)
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This porchetta recipe is as good as it gets. It’s all-belly porchetta with rich, tender meat flavored with fennel and traditional Italian seasonings, and it has the crispiest, chicharron-like crackling. And don’t worry, making this famous Italian dish is surprisingly simple.
Porchetta is an Italian classic known for bold flavor and irresistible texture. My version starts with pork belly that’s generously rubbed with herbs and spices, rolled tightly, and slow-baked until the meat is melt-in-your-mouth tender and the skin transforms into the crispiest crackling. It’s a show-stopping centerpiece that fills your kitchen with the most incredible aroma and makes any dinner feel like a celebration.
Don’t be intimidated by this recipe—while porchetta may look fancy, I’ve laid out clear step-by-step instructions with photos to guide you through the process. From seasoning and rolling to roasting it to golden perfection, you’ll see exactly what to do, and it’s easier than you might think.
If you’re a fan of pork belly recipes, this porchetta is one you’ll want on repeat. The crispy skin, juicy layers, and savory herb filling make it unforgettable, and it’s surprisingly simple to prepare at home. For another delicious take on pork belly, check out my Maple Glazed Pork Belly with Crispy Crackling.
Ingredient overview
While porchetta may sound fancy, it’s made from entirely familiar ingredients. You probably already have most of them. Gather these items:
- Pork belly: Use a skin-on pork belly so the skin develops an irresistible crackle while the meat stays deliciously tender and juicy. Since you need a large piece, you may need to order this from your local butcher.
- From the spice rack: Fennel seeds, chili flakes, black pepper, and sea salt flavor and enhance the dish.
- Citrus: Adding orange juice and orange zest brings acidity to cut through the heaviness of the porchetta, brightening the dish.
- Olive oil: To help the herbs and spices adhere to your porchetta.
- Fresh herbs: The classic Italian herbs of parsley, rosemary, thyme, and sage bring earthy and herbaceous flavors.
How to make porchetta roast
Working with such a large piece of meat can feel intimidating. Clear some workspace on your counter and give yourself about 45 minutes to prepare the porchetta.
- Start with the pork belly skin-side down, then roll it into a long log. Using the tip of a sharp knife, mark where the skin overlaps.
- Now flip the pork belly skin-side up and remove the small piece of skin that overlaps. We do this as the skin that gets wrapped in the meat becomes gummy and chewy and doesn’t crisp nicely.
- Take a pairing knife and spend several minutes stabbing the skin all over. You want to absolutely cover it with small holes. Try to stab only through the skin, not into the fat or meat. Some holes in the fat layer are fine; just do your best here.
- Flip the belly over so it’s skin side down. If parts of it are thicker than others, you can use a rubber mallet to pound the meat so that it’s roughly even in thickness. Then, cut the meat in diagonal lines to create a cross-hatch pattern. Make sure to cut only through the meat, not into the fat layer.
- Now grind the fennel and chili flakes until coarsely ground – a small blender or food processor works well for this. A mortar and pestle is another good option. Combine the ground fennel with the remaining herbs, spices, oil, and orange juice to form a thick paste.
- Spread the paste onto the meat with your fingers, working it into all the cuts you made.
- Now it’s time to roll the belly into a tight log and tie it up! Use butcher twine and tie it at 1-inch intervals – it will look the prettiest after it’s cooked if it’s tied with closely spaced twine. Cut the ends off the twine after you tie them.
- After you roll the porchetta, there is often some meat sticking out of the ends. We usually trim this off so the porchetta looks nicer. But we save it to eat the night we roll the porchetta. Slice this extra meat thin, mix it with olive oil and Italian seasoning, and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 2 hours. It’s delicious!
- Once you’ve rolled the porchetta, it will be a long, unwieldy log. To make it easier to bake and serve, we cut it in half. At this point, you can wrap and freeze one of the logs if you’d like.
- Now, all that you have to do is oil and salt the skin liberally, then place the porchetta on a cooling rack placed over a baking dish. Put it into your fridge (uncovered) for 24-72 hours.
That’s it! Your porchetta is prepared!
How to get the crispiest skin
Porchetta is only as good as its crispy skin, so this is one part you have to nail. If you’ve ever seen pictures of porchetta with smooth skin, just know that this is not what you’re after! Luckily, there are only three things you need to do to get that delicious, potato chip-like skin.
- Poke holes all over the skin. Pick up a paring knife and lightly stab the skin all over. You’ll need to spend several minutes on this to cover the entire skin surface with small holes.
- Oil the skin. Rubbing oil all over the skin will help the fat to render and the skin to become extra crispy.
- A blast of high heat. To achieve wonderfully crisp bubbles, place the skin under high heat. Within minutes, you’ll start to see the skin change. It will darken, and then numerous small, super crispy bubbles will magically appear.
Italian Porchetta (All-Belly Pork Roast)
Ingredients
Instructions
Prep the porchetta
- Roll the pork belly into a long log and then mark where the skin overlaps. Unroll and remove the skin from the overlapping part.1 whole skin-on pork belly
- Unroll and remove the skin from the overlapping part.
- Use a paring knife to poke shallow holes all over the surface of the skin. Try not to go too deep and make lots of holes.
- Turn the pork belly over and cut diagonal lines into the meat to form a cross-hatch pattern.
- Grind the fennel seeds and chili flakes until coarsely ground. Transfer them to a bowl and add the orange zest, orange juice, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, parsley, 1 tablespoon of sea salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and sage and mix to form a paste.2 tablespoons fennel seeds, 1 tablespoon chii flakes, Zest from 2 oranges, ¼ cup orange juice, ¼ cup olive oil, ¼ cup chopped parsley, 2 tablespoons sea salt, 1 tablespoon EACH: minced rosemary, thyme, sage, and black pepper
- Run this paste all over the meat, using your fingers to work the rub into the meat.
- Roll the pork belly into a tight log and tie it with butcher twine at 1" intervals.
- Optional: if there is a lot of meat sticking out from the ends of the porchetta roll you can cut it off for a neater presentation. (see notes)
- At this point, the porchetta will be VERY long. Cut it in half to make it easier to cook.
- Rub the pork belly log with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sea salt over the skin. Put the porchetta on the rack set over the baking dish and put it into your fridge for 24-72 hours.
Cook the porchetta
- Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the porchetta from your fridge and rub more olive oil over the skin. Put it into your oven on a middle rack and let it roast for 3-4 hours. It will be done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Remove the porchetta from the oven and turn the temperature to broil. Lift the porchetta and the cooling rack off of the baking dish and carefully drain all the fat from the bottom of the baking dish into a heatproof bowl. Put the porchetta (and cooling rack) back onto the baking dish and baste the skin with the fat in the bowl.
- Once the oven comes up to temperature put the porchetta back into the oven. The skin will turn dark brown and bubbly under the high heat, but watch it very carefully so that it doesn't burn. Every 5-7 minutes, use 2 pairs of tongs to carefully rotate the porchetta so that the skin crisps all around. You'll know it's ready when it's dark mahoggany brown and the skin has lots of little bubbles in it.
- Remove the baking dish from the oven being very careful not to spill any of the hot fat that's in the baking dish. Let the porchetta rest for 15-20 minutes before carving it with a serrated knife.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
Italian pork belly FAQs
How much porchetta to serve per person?
Most of the time, you’ll want to buy ½ pound of uncooked meat per person. But once you start eating pork belly, it’s incredibly hard to stop, which is why we plan on 1 pound per person. Also, leftovers are excellent in sandwiches, so it’s wise to plan on making extra!
Should I serve porchetta hot or cold?
When we serve porchetta for dinner, it’s served hot out of the oven. But leftovers taste wonderful piled high between thick slices of bread in a porchetta sandwich.
What cut of meat is used for porchetta?
Traditional porchetta is made from a whole suckling pig. But a manageable way to create the same results in your home kitchen is to make porchetta from pork belly, which is a fatty cut of meat from the belly of a pig. It’s the same cut that is used to make bacon.
Are Porketta and porchetta the same thing?
You’ll sometimes see porchetta referred to as porketta. This is due to its pronunciation in Italian.
More delicious dinner recipes
For more inspiration, check out all of our pork recipes!
Have you tried using dried herbs for the recipe or it’s something you’d never recommend?
Great question! You can absolutely use dried herbs if that’s what you have on hand — just use about a third of the amount since they’re more concentrated than fresh. Fresh herbs add a little extra brightness, but dried will still give you lots of flavor. 💛
Bonjour,il faut compter combien de grammes par personne ?200gr? Je dois en faire pour 30 personnes 😁merci
Bonjour ! Comptez 200 à 300 grammes par personne.
In true italian fashion I used fennel pollen in place.of fennel seed. We made sandwiches using a good crusty irltalian bread drizzled with lemon olive oil and arugula. Add a little more lemon olive oil on top and some good cracked pepper. Momma Mia!
I love fennel pollen! Great idea to use it if you’ve got it!
Did you use fresh herbs or dried herbs in this recipe?
I use fresh herbs, but you can definitely use dried if that’s what you have on hand. If you use dried, you’ll want to reduce the amount to 1 teaspoon each.
Thanks for a delicious Christmas lunch Dec 2023. Recipe worked out really well and I achieved my best ever crackling.
I’m in the UK so grilling is close to your ‘broiling’ (I think…and that’s what I did and it worked out great).
1 thing I did was after draining off the fat from the roasting pan I added about 400ml of water.
Then I grilled/broiled the meat to get crispy crackling.
After the crackling was done and while the meat rested I made a decent gravy with the liquid and meat juices in the roasting pan.
Great call on the water to make gravy! I’m so happy that it turned out really well for you!
After cutting the porchetta in half and before cooking, could you vac pack it and freeze it for later?
Absolutely! I’ve frozen half before uncooked and it works great. I usually wrap it in parchment paper and then then put it into a Stasher bag. But vac packing it will work just as well.
No Garlic?
We don’t use any garlic, but you could certainly add some to the rub!
I’m slow,but in the recipe you instruct us to roll the belly. But it looks like you folded it. Am I not seeing correctly?
Depending on the size of the pork belly it will be somewhere between a roll and a fold. Ours only barely overlapped so that’s probably why it looks folded.
When I was a young man and did construction work outside in Connecticut the crew would go to the local Bar for lunch where many of them were operated by Italians, and they always had the best Porketta
and Roast Beef sandwiches. They were served on a
Portuguese roll with grave made from the roast . You could eat them all day , as they were the best and we were always very happy to work close by. This recipe is a gem and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to make this incredible meal. You will not be sorry that’s for sure.
Could be Pancetta on the bread
wow these belly porchetta is so rich and tender – EVERYONE loves it and requests for it all the time
This recipe is so perfect to put on the holiday table! Such a crowd-pleaser!!
Wow, this was amazing! I had no idea it would be this easy to make this flavor packed porchetta. I’m ready to impress my family with this one.
This porchetta is so delicious. Thanks for sharing how to tie the roll of meat together before cooking. I really appreciate all of your detailed instructions.
You’re welcome! Porchetta is a fairly simple recipe but the prep does involve some steps that I thought would be easier to show than describe. I’m really happy that you found it helpful!
I made this for Christmas dinner and it was fantastic! It was my first time making porchetta and I was a bit intimidated but the pictures you have made it a lot easier. And it tasted so much better than the turkey I usually make so I think a new tradition has begun!