Roast Pork Belly with Pancetta-Wrapped Apples
Pork, apples, and cabbage is a classic combination, and this one tray version is a favourite of ours. If you don’t have an apple corer, leave the apples whole and add the sultanas and pine nuts to the vegetables in the roasting dish for the last 10 minutes of cooking.
Ingredients
1-1.2 kg Freedom Farms pork belly, skin on
2 tsp flaky sea salt
1 tsp ground fennel
2 red onions, sliced
2 fennel bulbs, cut into very thin wedges, fronds reserved
¼ red cabbage, shredded
A few sprigs of thyme
3 bay leaves
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp fennel seeds
½ cup chicken stock or water
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
6 apples (we used Braeburn)
⅓ cup golden raisins or sultanas, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes, then drained
2 Tbsp toasted pine nuts
6 slices pancetta
Method
To achieve perfect crackling, start preparing your pork the night before. Score the skin of the pork belly with a sharp knife and carefully pour ladles of boiling water over the skin (this helps to open up the pores). Dry the pork very well, then rub the sea salt into the skin of the pork, ensuring that you get some salt into the cuts. Place the belly, skin side up, on a rack over a tray and refrigerate, uncovered, overnight to dry the skin even more.
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Remove the pork from the fridge, pat dry again, and rub the ground fennel onto the flesh. Sprinkle the skin with more salt. Place the pork on a rack over a roasting dish and roast for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and lower the heat to 180°C.
In the same roasting dish, toss the onion, fennel, and cabbage with the olive oil and fennel seeds. Add the thyme and bay leaves. Season generously with salt and pepper and drizzle over the chicken stock and cider vinegar. Place the pork on top of the vegetables and cook for 40 minutes.
Core the apples using an apple corer. Combine the sultanas and pine nuts and stuff the mix into the cored apples. Wrap a piece of pancetta around each apple and secure it with a toothpick. Set aside.
Nestle the apples around the pork and roast for a further 30-40 minutes, adding extra liquid to the roasting dish if the vegetables start to catch. If the pork skin hasn’t completely crackled, put the belly on another tray and pop it under the grill (be careful though as it can burn very quickly).
Leave the meat to rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Finely chop the fennel fronds and toss them through the vegetables. Remove the toothpicks from the apples before serving.