Rooftop Gourmet

Unfortunately the judges didn’t select my pizza blog (challenge #5) as a winner, so my Project Food Blog adventure is officially over. Thank you everyone for voting and supporting me from 2,000 blogs down to only 72. If you guys know me and my competitive nature, you probably realize how hard this was to swallow. Oh well… life goes on and Rooftop Gourmet will continue to produce weekly recipes and wine pairings as it did before the contest. I had prepared my next challenge before I heard the bad news so I figured that I’d post it anyway.

Challenge #6: Road Trip

Challenge Prompt: For this challenge, you’re tasked with creating a delicious meal that will travel well and still look great. From picnics and school lunches to bento boxes, or any other meal on the go, you need to whip up a entree, side, drink, and dessert to enjoy after hitting the road. Be sure that your meal fits inside the Project Food Blog Road Trip Cooler.

Talk about throwing me head first back into my comfort zone! Mobile food is right up my alley, especially when served in a concrete jungle outside Foxboro Stadium. I feel as though I have perfected my parking lot etiquette and risen to the next level of tailgating. Unfortunately, my beloved Patriots were across country this weekend battling the San Diego Chargers, which forced me to move my pigskin picnic up to my spacious roofdeck.

I love tailgating because it serves as a male bonding, guilt-free, social event where guzzling beers, belching, and stuffing our faces is completely acceptable. Now that I’m twenty-eight years old, you would think that the dynamics would change quite a bit because my good friend Mark brought his five month old daughter Bria to the party, but trust me, we didn’t skip a beat. Bria was just hanging out like she was one of the guys. We did have to change a few diapers along the way, but if you knew my friends, this wasn’t too bad compared to our college tailgating festivities.

I was a little bummed out that Tom couldn’t make it to the picnic but I understood that he had work to do on the West coast.

Keeping with the football theme, I chose to create my entire portable menu around the pigskin, or the pig itself.

I have to admit that my swine worship has officially been taken to the next level, and I am banned from bringing home any more pig paraphernalia until said otherwise.

 My main course is a Tuscan, road-side treat that is traditionally sold out of a wagon, or throw-back food truck, deep in the heart of Italy. Porchetta is a culinary tradition of slow roasting a heavily seasoned, whole pig for hours and serving it sliced into savory sandwiches.

The juicy, slabs of pork melt in your mouth and appear frequently during holiday celebrations or outdoor festivals. Think of the porchetta man as the European version of an ice cream truck rolling into the parking lot, interrupting your child’s little league game, and selling thousands of Dora The Explorer Popsicles.

I threw a million cloves of garlic, rosemary, sage, fennel seed, salt and pepper into the food processor and pulsed together a paste in which I massaged thoroughly into my massive Berkshire pork loin.

 I let the flavors marinate overnight before I slow-roasted the loin in a two hundred degree oven. Once the internal temperature of the pork reached around 145 degrees, I pulled it and let it rest (continue cooking). One thing that I can’t stand is the phrase, “the other white meat”. Pork is not white and it has been humiliated in the past by comparing it to chicken. Especially when you know where your pig comes from, do not overcook it!

Americans don’t need to continue slathering Mott’s Applesauce all over their entrees in order to make it swallow-able.

I thinly sliced my pig and layered it on top of a chewy baguette, adorning it with a classic Tonnato sauce. Tonnato is a tuna flavored mayonnaise that usually compliments cold slices of veal in an antipasto setting.

I made mine by combining Italian tonno (preserved in olive oil), anchovies, capers, homemade mayonnaise, and a splash of Tabasco.

The “hoagie” was capitalized with some thinly sliced fennel, pickled red onion, and a handful of fresh watercress. The fresh, juicy apple flavors in the crisp watercress and the subtle licorice nuances in the fennel made the tender pork melt in your mouth.

The submarines quickly disappeared leaving our suds-soaked stomachs craving something salty. When I mentioned that this was going to be a pigskin picnic, I wasn’t lying. I made homemade, black pepper bombed, pork rinds by drying out the actual skin of the Berkshire pig.

I had to trim off most of the fat (which I saved for later use) and very slowly crisped up the skins in a 150 degree oven for three hours. Three magical hours of dancing around my condo with a pig’s snout, sniffing the magical aromas of melting pork fat to be exact.

Once the skins were dark and crunchy, I tossed them in sea salt and tons of cracked black pepper, preparing them for the picnic. A tailgate without beer is like a Bar Mitzvah without Manischewitz.

I loaded my Project Food Blog Cooler with multiple cans of Pork Slap Ale; a canned craft brew sporting two naked pigs, ceremoniously belly bumping in mid air on the label.

 I put the bacon-ized twist on my beverage by rimming my pint glass with a hickory-smoked sea salt. The smoky, salty flavor encouraged us to suck down a few extra Pork Slaps at a collegiate pace.

 The amber colored ale is perfumed with caramel and breakfast cereal, while the flavor is dense with yeasty vanilla notes. Needless to say, it got the job done to lubricate our football minds and excite us for the long anticipated dessert.

I have a hard time enjoying, and endorsing desserts due to my lack of sweet teeth, but when bacon is involved, it’s a different story. This one bite, taste of heaven was something that I could actually be proud of. A flourless, chocolate cake resembling a dense fudge, receiving a drooling of homemade caramel, and a sprinkle of crispy bacon bits. The combination of rich, creamy chocolate and salty bacon was something that we all weren’t prepared for. The duet was mind blowing like Brady & Moss before we traded the bacon for a third round draft pick. 

 Cooking is like therapy for me. Whenever I have a long, stressful day, I come home, turn down the oven and slow cook something for hours. Not only is slow cooking beneficial for the protein, but it’s also therapeutic for the mind and soul. The result is a tender and juicy piece of meat, along with a  home-cooked feeling of comfort and satisfaction. Last night, I made a slow roasted Porchetta, which is a culinary tradition in Tuscany.

 There are many variations of Porchetta but it’s basically a whole pig or boneless pork roast that is seasoned with garlic, rosemary, fennel seeds and other herbs, which is then slow cooked for hours; it was introduced to Americans as “Italian pulled pork”. In Italy, Porchetta is sold by pitchmen out of carts or vans during holidays and public gatherings; basically, the Italian version of an ice cream truck that pulls up to your little league games.

The slow cooking (225 degrees) process keeps the meat moist and gets the outer layers of fat nice and crispy. I bought an end cut of loin and liberally seasoned it with salt, fresh cracked black pepper, garlic, rosemary, sage and toasted fennel seeds that I pulsed in the food processor.

 If this wasn’t a last minute dinner idea, I would have marinated it for a couple of days in this mixture to really intensify the flavor. I was really screwing with my oven’s mind by cranking it up to 550 degrees to start in order to get a nice crust on the pork, then turning it down to 225 degrees for the remainder of the cooking process. The whole process takes about two hours, so I had plenty of time to relax and get everything else prepped. I made a rich sauce with a reduction of Calvados (Apple Brandy), beef broth, shallots and butter.

The light brown, silky textured sauce was reminiscent of a Cognac-laced gravy. I then sauteed some shaved fennel and celery to serve with the pork, along with some caramelized shallots and bing cherries for a touch of added sweetness.

I paired this dish with one of my favorite Tuscan wines, the 2006 Avignonesi Vino Nobile di Montepulciano because its flavors remind me of the ingredients I used to create this meal. The wine is jumping with acidity and emits tons of fresh cherry aromas on the nose. The tannins are smooth and the wine is rich with underlying hints of fresh herbs, licorice(fennel), and spice.

 It’s medium bodied and low in alcohol which pairs perfectly with the succulent roasted pig.

 The wine is made up of primarily Sangiovese (locally known as Prugnolo gentile), and a blend of a few other locally grown grapes, followed by minimum two years in oak barrels. After the internal meat thermometer read about 155 degrees, I removed the pork from the oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes, allowing the internal juices to recirculate.

Two thick slabs of melt-in-your-mouth-pork later and my day was instantly improved. The minced garlic on the outside of the meat slowly caramelized over the two hour stint in the oven and balanced nicely with the piney rosemary and mouth-watering pork fat. Plenty of leftovers made for an amazing Porchetta Panini for lunch today; maybe one day someone will start driving a Porchetta truck like in the old country. Forget the children, I’d be the one running down the street after it.