Porchetta by Vitaliano Bernabei, knife-cut, sliced

Bernabei’s is an ancient pork butcher’s story passed down from father to son, started in 1912 in the center of Marino, in the Castelli Romani, south of the capital, slaughtering pigs raised in the surrounding countryside. The business is carried out today with unchanged passion but also a spirit of research by Vitaliano Bernabei, Vito for friends. The pork butcher Vito personally carries out each phase of the processing of the porchetta log, following to the letter the teachings handed down to him by his grandfather. The pigs chosen by Bernabei, strictly organic, are directly checked by him; this is one of the secrets that contributes to the creation of a great product. The processing of the porchetta begins with the emptying and deboning of the animal, to then proceed to salting the meat, a phase in which Vito Bernabei uses only Cervia salt. The meat is then carefully massaged with the help of water, spread evenly over the piece, so as to make the salting more homogeneous. The salt must, in fact, be distributed in a balanced way, in greater quantities where the mass is thicker and more compact. Once this procedure is completed, Vito seasons the meat with “Rimbas pepper”, from the Slow Food presidium in Malaysia, and with coarsely chopped garlic. The whole thing is enriched with chopped wild fennel flower, which gives a unique flavor to the meat, and with a handful of rosemary, which crowns this first phase of preparation. At this point the porchetta log is rolled up and sewn, but before cooking it must rest for about six hours, so that the flavors have time to penetrate evenly in depth. Before the final tying, done strictly by hand, the meat must be punched so that excess fat comes out during cooking. As for the final phase of preparation, Bernabei recommends slow cooking for about seven hours, at a very low temperature, so as to allow the meat to remain soft and fragrant: cooking therefore starts at 90°C and then progressively increases. Bernabei uses a technologically advanced oven, which guarantees scrupulous control of the three cooking phases: moist, moist-dry and dry. The final result is a unique product, with an extremely inviting appearance: the rind toasted by the fire takes on an amber color, crunchy on the palate, while the pork meat remains soft, delicately flavorful and with the right amount of fat.