Any good Marchegian will defend the region's Porchetta efforts, and the New Haven area in Connecticut - loaded with multi generation Marchegian - still produces some great stuff. These were standard on New Years and several more over the course of the year.
Some commenters didn't like that a farm animal – a sentient being – must endure slaughter in the name of fine dining. While we agree, that will always be the case in any article that deals with meat. And there will always be articles on that subject.
But specifically in this article, some references were not for the faint-hearted, such as “the smell of blood,” and “the head is left on, … so a whole porchetta looks like a pig in a brown sleeping bag.” That seems ghastly for a dead pig.
But specifically in this article, some references were not for the faint-hearted, such as “the smell of blood,” and “the head is left on, … so a whole porchetta looks like a pig in a brown sleeping bag.” That seems ghastly for a dead pig.
In the Boston area, it is so worth the trip to Pennypackers on Medford Street in Somerville (or at their traveling food truck--locations are on their Facebook page). They make *fabulous* porchetta sandwiches on Iggy's ciabatta rolls, or you can also buy a whole or a half porchetta to serve a crowd. Closer than Italy, and I can't believe it doesn't hold its own to the place in the East Village.
3
Our home town of San Terenziano started this wonderful festival five years ago and it keeps on growing. Yes, you can get porchetta in Rome (from trucks at the soccer stadium) and in San Francisco, but there is absolutely nothing as good as "zero kilometer" porchetta from San Terenziano and Grutti. See you in the piazza.
2
Delicious porchetta sandwich at "Meat and Bread" in Vancouver!
1
The porchette food truck at the weekly farmer's market in Orvieto is a must if you're visiting there. Altimari's Little Italy deli in Derby, CT is has a porchetta sandwich that's as good as it gets around here.
1
Can anyone recommend a good place to get porchetta in central Rome?
Oddly enough, the food court in the Rome airport has a pretty good porchetta. Try it if you get stuck there and are not yet ready to leave Italian food behind.
5
No, but if you don't mind taking BART to Walnut Creek you can get a fabulous porchetta sandwich at the 54 Minto Forno.
3
Er Buchetto
Via del Viminale 2F, 00184 Rome
It can be found on Yelp. I ate lunch there 3 times in a row. Fantastic!
Via del Viminale 2F, 00184 Rome
It can be found on Yelp. I ate lunch there 3 times in a row. Fantastic!
1
We had a lovely sample of Porchetta in Tuscany (Greve in Chianti, home of Verazzano). This was in the late 1990's. Glad to see it in other parts of Italy.
Our family has been cooking Porchetta each week at our tavern for over 40 years. We serve sandwiches with the pork skins, garlic and hot peppers from the pig on the side to put in the sandwich for a little extra kick!
This has been a tradition in Iron Mountain for over 100 years in different establishments through out our town. The name of our tavern is called Bimbo's and it is located on what was the Italian side or the North Side of town.
I would like to show you a fresh ham just out of our pig oven that will be served in sandwiches at the tavern at noon, but I do not think I have an option to include a jpeg of the ham.
This has been a tradition in Iron Mountain for over 100 years in different establishments through out our town. The name of our tavern is called Bimbo's and it is located on what was the Italian side or the North Side of town.
I would like to show you a fresh ham just out of our pig oven that will be served in sandwiches at the tavern at noon, but I do not think I have an option to include a jpeg of the ham.
11
I've been to Bimbo's ... A classic place with great food and people ... Porchetta is outstanding!
5
A sublime taste of Italy in the northern peninsula of Michigan! If you haven't been, go! And do start of your jouney of discovery with America's best a porchetta sandwich at Bimbo's, located on the Northside, USA.
1
Street food is the food of democracy. An antidote to neo-liberal domination of the food chain. It can also be an answer to the "food desert" problem. Low cost to entry makes it an option for those for may lack other opportunities. It is also urban phenomena, difficult for municipalities to control. In South Asian mega cities it is not a phenomena, fad, or curiosity but the norm. Read my paper on Bangkok Mobile Vending.
3
In Rome--real porchetta means "from Ariccia," a town in the Castelli area south of Rome. It's sold in Rome, but the way to have it is with a hunk sliced off a pig from a stand in a piazza, wrapped in paper, that you take to an osteria and drink with fresh, cool white wine. A taxi driver once told me that there are more pigs in Ariccia than people.
5
The reputation of Umbria being the birthplace of porchetta can be disputed. The porchetta from the Castelli Romani area (mostly the town of Ariccia) South of Rome I believe is the only with a IGP Certification of Origin from the EU. The main difference is the Ariccia porchetta uses rosemary while the Umbrian versions use fennel.
7
Eataly has a terrific porchetta only on Thursdays. Smorgasburg has a decent one on Saturdays.
1
Animal rights aside, one can enjoy Porchetta at the Rosticceria at Eataly in Manhattan. It takes me back to summers in Italy 40 years ago.
1
If you've never had it - you don't know what you are missing...I think Italians can't understand people who don't like to eat...
8
Great piece! Need to go there next year...
1
A wonderful article! However not true that porchetta is just street food or sold at sagre, my normal chain supermarket sells it all the time, the one coming from Ariccia, South of Rome in the mountains. Too bad I cannot send you a photo of a porchetta with head on and ready to be sliced up taken at my supermarket! PS: wild fennel grows all over the Mediterrean region. Buon appetito!
6
Street food is not the food of the future, it is the food of now. Vendors work from a small menu which they have mastered. The al fresco delights of wandering down a street with a newly discovered, or revisited, food delight cannot be beaten. The street vendors are all over and a thrill. Come, join us in the parade.
5
Umbria here I come! The article didn't mention what is done with all those bones. Pork bones add a delicious flavor to tomato sauce. American pork is mostly blah. Eight years ago I ate the most delicious pork in a sleepy dump of a restaurant just outside of Rio Frio, Mexico that I had tasted since childhood. The friendly woman who served the dish was as delighted by my enjoyment of it as I was to eat it. Ah, the days before factory farms produced America's meat.
15
At the annual German Festival in Milwaukee, a favorite food of mine is Spahnferkle which is a pig weighing between 100 and 120 pounds roasted whole on a turning spit. The spits are linked together and charcoal is burned under them to cook them.
This is a large festival and they have at least 30 pigs turning. No garlic is used but can be added. Rather tasty.
This is a large festival and they have at least 30 pigs turning. No garlic is used but can be added. Rather tasty.
1
While I agree that not everyone will become a vegetarian, one would hope that we all agree that animals are sentient beings and all deserve a quick and painless death as much as possible. I would venture to say that the possibilities of that happening in this pork festival are probably higher than at the Yulin dog eating festival where dogs are savagely brutalized before being slaughtered and cooked. There is a difference.
14
This article brought back happy memories of my student days in Rome 40 years ago, when a special treat was a trip to the porchetta stand across from the central train station. A couple of slices of porchetta on a freshly baked roll with a glass of Frascati wine on the side was a meal fit for a slow-food gourmet. How I wish we could transport Porchettiamo to this side of the Atlantic.
13
omg... i was there 40 years ago. so remember the little food vendors around the station!
mostly old italian men in suits and hats sitting cockeyed at the tiny tables.
mostly old italian men in suits and hats sitting cockeyed at the tiny tables.
Let's replace 'porchetta' ([female] piglet) with 'cagnetta' ([female] puppy): the whole article would become revolting to most American pet-loving people. The Yulin festival started yesterday, and many photos of the dogs at different stages of the butchering and cooking process were available to the public. Where does porchetta come from? Pigs, of course. But since we are used to them being mistreated and butchered, no photos of their miserable lives, no cries for their fate. Buon appetito!
20
I hear you, but on the other hand, if you are waiting for humans across the planet to suddenly all become vegetarians, I can guarantee you it is not going to happen in any lifetime. Vegetarians need to realize that the human species is by design an omnivore -- with hundreds of millions of years of design making us opportunistic in our feeding. Beans are good but you are dreaming if everyone will drop the chicken wings and eat nothing but plants.
43
And that is why the planet is going into the toilet. Animal agriculture (all that methane; the transport) is the single largest contributor to global warming. Frustrating that the world's inhabitants can't get a grip on what is important. Hint: It's not porchetta. There's a lot of great vegetarian food out there. Show some creativity, compassion for these fellow animal travelers, and concern for the planet's future. Remember, we need nature; nature does not need us.
2
I think you should check the facts before accusing animal agriculture for global warming! It has been around longer than global warming.
1
The best way to eat globally, is to cut meat production and consumption. It's cruel to animals and the planet, on which is is a huge net waster of resources (in the form of crops grown to feed animals and the land, energy and water they require) and a major contributor to global warming.
Italy doesn't get a pass on this, just because it's Italy. Its animals, land, climate suffer due to livestock production, same as everyone else's.
Italy doesn't get a pass on this, just because it's Italy. Its animals, land, climate suffer due to livestock production, same as everyone else's.
15
Last Easter, we chanced upon a rare whole fresh ham. Plenty of fat and crispiness that approached cracklings. I think if had the butcher debone it, I believe I could get similar results on a smaller scale.
It seems to me that a counter restaurant could be successful serving this sandwich alone.
I don't know why the entire pig is deboned. There is a lot of flavor in the bones. Also, if the carcass had not backbones or ribs, it would be hard to handle.
Oh well, when in Umbria do as the Umbrians do.
It seems to me that a counter restaurant could be successful serving this sandwich alone.
I don't know why the entire pig is deboned. There is a lot of flavor in the bones. Also, if the carcass had not backbones or ribs, it would be hard to handle.
Oh well, when in Umbria do as the Umbrians do.
6
The flavor in bones is in the marrow. The calcium on the exterior of the bones is flavorless. Simmering bones in liquid extracts the marrow. Dry heat cooking does not. In other words there is no flavor from the bones in this cooking method.
2
A wonderful article! It makes me want to taste porchetta, even though I do not eat pork meat, except as smoked or cured ham and fried or grilled wild boar.
The most attractive feature of porchetta is the meat without bones, well done.
The most attractive feature of porchetta is the meat without bones, well done.
2
The best porchetta on earth (and as Jack Woltz said in The Godfather: "I had 'em all over the world!) is made by chef Michael Toscano, formerly of Babbo, Manzo and Perla here in New York and now of Le Farfalle in Charleston, SC. Closer than Umbria, but still farther than I'd prefer. Chef Mike wraps a whole belly around a whole shoulder that has been butterflied and stuffed. Go try it yourselves!