Italian pork belly

The best thing about weekend is that you have time to cook slow. This pork needs 2 hours in the oven, not even THAT long if you'd ask me, and it's worth every second.

Paired with a fresh cucumber-dill salad, a caprese salad and spaghetti aglio e olio. You can pair it with anything. Potatoes, just a salad or bread. You name it. The Mediterranean flavours fit with almost anything. Dipping a piece of bread in the pork drippings is amazing.

You need to prep the meat the night before you want to eat it, so keep that in mind!

1. Get yourself a nice piece of pork without skin. Score the fat with a sharp knife without hitting the meat. Get rock salt and add a good amount onto the fat. Put the pork in the fridge on a plate, without covering it, fat side up. The fat has to get really nice and dry.

2. The next day, a little over 2 hours before you actually want to have dinner clean off the salt with a dry cloth or kitchen paper. Prepair your herb mixture.

3. I went for one stalk of rosemary, 1 tbsp fennel seeds, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp oregano and 1 tsp of thyme. And of course some pepper. Be careful with the salt. It's better to add extra salt later on your plate, cause you can't be sure if you were able to take all the rocksalt off.

4. Pre-heat your oven at 180°C and for the first hour, put the pork fat side down with only the herbs on the non-fat side.

5. After one hour, flip over the meat and add herbs to the fatty side (on top now). Put back in the oven for another hour.

6. After 2 hours total, the pork is done. The fat layer has rendered down for the biggest part and is slightly crispy on top. The meat is super nice and tender. Let the pork rest on the counter for about 15 minutes. I took this time to make my salads and pasta.

Slice the pork in 1cm thick slices and add salt if needed.

We even added a limoncello-prosecco cocktail to our meal. Today is a good day ❤

We even had some pork belly left and the next day I put it on a bun with pickled onions and jalapenos! Super tasty as well!

Enjoy!