What a revelation! I can take any roast that fits on a spit and cook it in my grill! I finally was able to try it as we marked the victory of I'll Have Another (love the name) in the Kentucky Derby. (I was rooting for Bodemeister, but a good race is worth celebrating.)
The recipe calls for a 7 lb boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt). My butcher friend at WF explained they cut the shoulders in half, so that generally they weighed 3-1/2 to 4 lbs. Plus there's a small bone in it. He offered to remove the bone, so I had him do the butterfly part, too, since I didn't find Link's directions for doing it very clear. I was leery of cutting the seasoning completely in half, and as a result the roast was a bit salty and garlicky (which we didn't mind). I'll give the portions for the full 7-lb roast and you can safely cut in half to get the taste Link wants.
Mix together 2 Tbl minced garlic, 3 Tbl salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 1 Tbl ground fennel, 1 Tbl chopped thyme or rosemary and spread the seasoning over the inside of the butterflied shoulder. Link also makes several incisions of an inch or so to get the seasoning into the meat. Roll it up and tie it and put 2 Tbl salt and 1 tsp pepper on the outside.
Link sears the meat and roasts it in a 325-degree oven for 1-1/2 to 2 hours to an internal temperature of 145 to 155 degrees. I put it on the spit and roasted it for about 50 min. Link has you put the roast on a bed of sliced onion and vegetable oil in the roasting pan, so I just onion and oil in the drip pan underneath the spit. We had steamed artichokes as a starter (and we couldn't figure out why we don't do that more often!), and accompanies with braised endives.
The first time I had real Italian porchetta was in a little hole-in-the-wall hostaria in Assisi and of course I fell totally in love with. This great recipe is as close as I'm going to get to it here, I think. We thought it tasted a bit of pancetta, so maybe fennel is one of the ingredients that gives pancetta its taste.
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