Pork coddled in olive oil

Once in a great while you come across a new technique that opens up undreamed-of flavors. Marcella Hazan's pork loin braised in milk was that kind of revelation and it is a dish we cook at least once a year.

This dish, again from Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, is a similar revelation and promises to become a standby. Our first encounter with a coddled dish came only a couple of weeks ago with the salmon coddled in olive oil at Marcel's. I had already dog-eared this recipe in the Wolfert book and was eager to try it after sampling the salmon dish.

This called for boneless pork shoulder cut into 2-in. cubes. I used the pork shoulder I had bought frozen from Blue Rooster Farm (though I think the pork actually comes from a neighboring farm). It looked so red in the package I wondered at one point if they had accidentally given me beef. But it looked like a pork shoulder cut and real heritage pork, of course, belies that ill-advised campaign about "the other white meat."

One of the things I enjoy about cooking is playing butcher, and I enjoyed cutting this off the bone and into cubes. A recent issue of RealEats described a butcher course for hobby cooks in California and I would happily take one if it was offered here.

The cubes then are tossed in a mix of coarse salt, crushed black peppercorns, 2 bay leaves crushed to a powder, bruised fennel seeds and 2 sprigs of thyme. The pungent smells of the spices as you worked them in the mortar was terrific. You seal the meat and spices and put in the fridge overnight. The next day, you squeeze the cubes in one layer in a dutch oven and cover with 2 c. of EVOO. I had recently decided it was worth spending the extra money on a premium imported oil like Colavita rather than Whole Foods 365 brand because something I read suggested that the WF brand was something less than highest quality. Very little of the oil actually goes into the meat and Wolfert suggests using the oil again after draining it off afterwards, but that didn't seem very appetizing to me.

You bring the oil slowly to a boil on top of the stove and then put in a 250-degree oven for 2-1/2 hours, inserting a half-head of garlic. Wolfert says to keep the oil from boiling too much and browning the meat. I'm not sure how you avoid browning the meat, though. She talks about it remaining pink, and I will set the temperature lower next time, but this pork definitely got brown on the outside -- while remaining pink on the inside.

The meat is done when you can tap a chunk and it falls into pieces. It's hard to describe how good that first bite tasted when I pulled out a chunk, tapped it into pieces and tasted it. The savory pork, the pungent spices, the silky oil, the garlic all conspired to create a very special balance of flavors. I set it on the screen porch to cool and warmed it slowly again for serving.

It is served with Tuscan beans. I used cannellini soaked overnight, and then cooked a couple of hours with 2 bay leaves, a dried hot pepper, and 2 peeled cloves of garlic. Wolfert says to serve the warmed-up pork on room temperature beans but we decided that next time we would warm up the beans again, too.

For the final assembly, you drain the pork and let the meat drippings settle in the drained off oil, pour off the oil and make a vinaigrette with the drippings, whisking in 3 Tbl of fresh oil and 1-1/2 Tbl of red wine vinegar, and dress the beans with that. You mound the beans on a platter, sprinkle paper-thin slices of red onion soaked in wine vinegar over the beans, add the pork chunks and garnish with arugula. We accompanied very nicely with a Cotes du Rhone.