Pork-based Italian Dishes: Loins, Roasts....

A number of years ago I finished Vinitaly, the major Italian wine trade show, with a delightful potluck dinner at the home of Lorenzo Begali, who makes wonderful Valpolicella and Amarone. And wrote down the recipes. This time it was a much quieter dinner, and Adriana, Lorenzo's wife, served pasta followed by stew and polenta.

Pellegrino Artusi included many interesting recipes in La Scienza in Cucina, one of the first cookbooks in Italian (he published it in 1891), which is still selling briskly today. If you're historically inclined, his recipe for roast pork loin with herbs is one of the most interesting. It's also quite tasty, and a staple in Tuscany. As is often the case, Artusi doesn't say much about temperatures or cooking times: In his day people either used a wood-fired stove, or cooked on the hearth.

An ancient recipe for wild boar in a rich chocolaty sweet-and-pungent sauce, which will also work with hare and other game.

Wild boar (or other game) marinated and stewed with the marinade, will work beautifully with polenta.

Pork and apples is a common combination, and there are many Italian recipes for it too. Here we have boned pork loin roasted with apples, a dish that will be nice at a family meal, but that is also elegant enough to serve company.

Pork and apples is a common combination, and there are many Italian recipes for it too. Here we have boned pork loin roasted with apples, a dish that will be nice at a family meal, but that is also elegant enough to serve company.

A rich, satisfying Milanese pork and cabbage stew.

A porchetta is a whole pig, roasted, and is one of the most common street foods in Central Italy; just about every fair or gathering will have a Porchettaro who does a brisk business selling sandwiches, and also packets of sliced porchetta to people who want to take some home. There are two major traditions. The one common to the regions of Umbria, Lazio, The Abruzzo and the Marche employs wild fennel, and is what we have here.

Chickpeas and pork temple (actually pork meat from throughout the head) is a Milanese dish from the days of the Spanish occupation -- in the 1600s.

Cotechino Fasciato: A cotechino is a rich pork sausage from Modena. Fasciato means wrapped, and here it is wrapped in a thin slice of meat. It's a dish from yore that Elisabetta's grandfather used to wax nostalgic over, and though it is rich by modern standards, it's also the sort of thing one can enjoy once in the course of a winter, or more often if one exercises.

A Calabrian egg & sausage specialty that's perfect for brunch

The best known Italian roast pig is porchetta: A boned whole pig well seasoned and spit roasted for hours. Classic festival food, and a standby at markets and fairs. Alas, unless you're feeding an army, it is not practical. A piglet is, however, if you're feeding say 20-30 people. This is the illustrated step by step recipe.

The best known Italian roast pig is porchetta: A boned whole pig very well seasoned and spit roasted for hours. Alas, unless you're feeding a huge gathering, and have quite a bit of experience managing a fire pit, roasting it is not practical. A piglet is, on the other hand, if you're feeding a large group -- say 20-30 people. This is the single page recipe.

Pork shoulder butt stewed with herbs and vineagr: A classic dish from the days before refrigeration, and very tasty now too.

Mustard is not the most common Italian seasoning. But it does work very well with pork loin, and also combines nicely with oranges in this fall pork roast, which will be nice for a family meal, but is also elegant enough for company.

Mustard is not the most common Italian seasoning. But it does work very well with pork loin, and also combines nicely with oranges in this fall pork roast, which will be nice for a family meal, but is also elegant enough for company.

A Calabrian specialty, meatballs with raisins in their hearts, which go perfectly with broccoli rabe.

A Sardinian Roast Suckling Pig. Two recipes, with background on the traditions involved, from Clifford Wright.

The classic porchetta is a boned, roasted whole pig, and is thus beyond the means of most home cooks. This is a nice recipe for porchetta made from a pig's shoulder, which will fit in the oven and feed a family.

Slow roasted pork hocks are extraordinarily sumptuous, and just the thing for a cold winter day. Comfort food of the highest order.

Arista is the Tuscan name for pork roast, and is also applied to the cut of meat used to make pork roast, the loin with ribs attached. According to Artusi it derives from an ecumenical council held in Florence in 1430 to attempt to settle the differences between the Greek and Roman Churches, during which the Florentines served their guests roast pork loin seasoned with rosemary, salt, and pepper. The Greeks all began to exclaim, "Arista, arista! (good, good!)" and the name stuck.

Pork Loin en Croute, or Filetto di Maiale in Crosta: This is very tasty and has the added benefit of presenting beautifully too.

Pork loin is quite versatile, and is also well suited to marinades. This pork loin recipe takes some planning -- one has to marinate the meat -- but is quite tasty, and also easy to cook.

Pork loin is quite versatile, and is also well suited to marinades. This pork loin recipe takes some planning -- one has to marinate the meat -- but is quite tasty, and also easy to cook.

Though most modern Italian meat dishes are savory, there is a long tradition of combining meats with dried fruit, especially for festive winter...

Pork Loin with Apples, Filetto di Maiale alle Mele: Pork and apples are a universal combination. This recipe calls for a whole loin, and will take about an hour and a half to prepare. To serve 4:

Pork loin with balsamic vinegar is an expensive dish, because it should be made with balsamic vinegar, which isn't cheap. I probably wouldn't use true balsamic vinegar, which must age at least 12 years, and is very expensive, but would not use something industrial off the vinegar section of the supermarket shelf either. Rather, a barrel-aged vinegar that's 5-8 years old.

Pork loin with balsamic vinegar is an expensive dish, because it should be made with balsamic vinegar, which isn't cheap. I probably wouldn't use true balsamic vinegar, which must age at least 12 years, and is very expensive, but would not use something industrial off the vinegar section of the supermarket shelf either. Rather, a barrel-aged vinegar that's 5-8 years old.

Pork loin is both economical and tender, though it does require some care because if it is overcooked it toughens up. Therefore, cook it only until it is white throughout.

Since pork shanks cook slowly, they're a perfect candidate for being stewed with winter vegetables, for example Savoy cabbage.

Pork Shoulder in Orange Sauce, or Cosciotto all'Arancia: This is an elegant dish that will work nicely on an important occasion, when you want to serve something tasty but rather unusual.

Pork Stew, or Spezzatino di Maiale: This is a classic Italian recipe, in that it doesn't say how much pork to use, since the author assumes you will know. For four people figure about a pound and a half (600 g) of boned lean pork, cubed.

Pork Stew: Quite obvious, very simple, and if it didn't exist we'd have to invent it.

Pork Stewed in Milk, or Mas-cio al Late: This is one of the most popular second course entrees in the restaurants of the Vicentino, and as a result there are many variations. Some use white wine rather than white wine vinegar, others omit the garlic, and others use pork loin rather than pork rump. In short, many tasty variations!

This recipe calls for porcini, but should also work with other flavorful wild mushrooms. Industrially grown champignons won't do it justice.

Italy has changed considerably since I moved here permanently in 1982. Then soy sauce was available sometimes in larger supermarkets, but finding ginger root was an iffy proposition. Now the supermarket has both, and Italians are beginning to include them in Italian-derived recipes.

Roast Pork & Pork-Roasted Duck: Porchetta is a roast pig, an ideal picnic food and also quite good as part of a festive, though not tremendously elegant, meal. Larger pigs, roasted the same way, are sliced to stuff sandwiches in fairs. And also, a roast duck for smaller groups.

This pork shank recipe from Trentino Alto Adige takes a couple of hours to do, but is well worth the time when it's cold out: It will warm the kitchen as it cooks, and the heart at table.

Cooking with fruit will, of course, impart sweet overtones to a dish, and though this sort of thing is relatively rare in modern Italian cooking, it was quite common in the past. In short, a step back into the past and a tasty change of pace besides. The onions should ideally be borrettane, which are small and sweet. Any small sweet onion will work, however, and if need be you can make do with plain button onions.

Roast Suckling Pig, or Maialino allo Spiedo: Every region of Italy has a recipe for suckling pig. This particular variation is done over the coals; it's Tuscan, and is perfect for a festive occasion. The recipe is hazy on the cooking time, because it will depend upon the fire, the fireplace, and the pig.

Tuscan-style barbecued spare ribs. Simple but delicious. Measurements in grams, though easy to figure out (454 is a pound, 25 about an ounce).

Porceddu is, quite simply, a Sardinian roast sucking piglet, but the roasting technique is masterful enough that it is one of the finest ways to cook pork one could imagine. It does require experience with fire building, and also quite a bit of wood, as the coals must burn for several hours. But the results are well worth the effort.

Since salt roasting draws moisture (and fat) from unprotected meats, you will need to lardon the loin with pancetta. The result is a delightfully moist pork roast, served with a spicy horseradish sauce that will serve 4-6.

Since salt roasting draws moisture (and fat) from unprotected meats, you will need to lardon the loin with pancetta. The result is a delightfully moist pork roast, and a spicy horseradish sauce.

A rich wild boar stew from the Apuans, west of Lucca.

Pork loin stuffed with olives and dried tomatoes: It will be very good either grilled or roasted.

Though cooked on top of the stove, this is actually a roast of the type known in Tuscany as an arrosto morto. The recipe draws from Pellegrino Artusi, though he puts a couple ounces of bone morrow in the filling, and wraps the roast in 1/4 pound of lace fat. I instead used thinly sliced cured lard. If your butcher has lace fat, you may want to...

A porchetta is a whole pig, roasted, and is one of the most common street foods in Central Italy; just about every fair or gathering will have a Porchettaro who does a brisk business selling sandwiches, and also packets of sliced porchetta to people who want to take some home. There are two major traditions, one more Tuscan, and the other from the regions of Lazio, Umbria, and the Abruzzo Marche region. This recipe is Tuscan.

Elisabetta's Uncle Guerrando's fegatelli will make a convert out of even the most avowed liver hater.