You will need:
- A nice large piece of roasting pork from the butcher. I favour hock because it's fatty (therefore full of flavour) and cheap, but the dish could equally be made using pork belly.
- Three cloves of garlic, sliced roughly
- A lemon, sliced
- Plenty of fresh sage, rosemary and fennel, chopped roughly
- Olive oil, salt, pepper
Firstly, pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees. You will be roasting the pork slowly, allowing the flavours to permeate the meat, creating a lovely, sticky finish on the outside and a juicy inside.
The key to getting this dish right is to get all of the flavouring right inside the pork. If you are using a hock, the easiest way to do this will be to score the skin deeply with a sharp knife. Season well and slide the garlic slices and herbs into the cuts, before drizzling with olive oil and arranging the lemon slices on top.
If you are using pork belly, your butcher will either sell you the meat in one flat piece, or rolled and tied with string. If it's the latter, remove the string and lay the meat, skin side down, on the work surface. Season and arrange the garlic, lemon and herbs directly onto the meat, before rolling it up like a Swiss roll and securing it with fresh string.
Now just wrap the pork in foil and roast for two and a half hours. Your kitchen will fill with the most delicious aromas as the herbs start to break down and flavour the meat.
Make sure you remove any large pieces of lemon before serving it! I prefer to set the meat aside to cool, which makes it easier to slice thinly, and serve it with a green salad and some fresh bread, but it's equally delicious served hot and served with greens and potatoes.
