Porketta

Serves 8 to 12.

Note: Be sure to score the skin with a very sharp knife before you begin or ask the butcher to do this for you. Plan on leftovers; the cooked meat will keep for four days covered in the refrigerator or may be wrapped and frozen for later use. From “The Old Country Cookbook: Cooking From the Iron Range,” compiled by the Iron Range Interpretive Center.

• 1 (6 to 7 lb.), skin-on pork-shoulder roast

• 6 garlic cloves, smashed

• 2 tbsp. fresh chopped rosemary, or 1 tbsp. dried

• 1 tbsp. fennel seeds crushed

• 1 tbsp. coarse salt

• 1 tbsp. ground black pepper

• Pinch red pepper flakes

• 1/4 c. olive oil

• 1/2 c. white wine

• 1 large onion, cut into 2-in. pieces

• 2 fennel bulbs, cut into 2-in. pieces

• 6 to 10 potatoes, cut into hunks

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Score the skin and fat all over the pork, taking care not to cut into the meat. With a mortar and pestle or in the food processor, smash together the garlic, rosemary, fennel seeds, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and olive oil. Rub this over the pork.

Transfer the pork to a roasting pan and roast until the fat begins to render, about 35 minutes. Cover the pork, reduce the heat, and continue cooking for 3 hours. Add the wine, onion, fennel bulbs and potatoes to the roasting pan, cover, and continue roasting until the meat is very fork tender, about 30 minutes.

Remove the cover and continue roasting to darken the crust and the meat thermometer inserted into the center of the meat reads 180 degrees, about 15 more minutes.

Remove the roast from the oven and allow it to sit for about 5 minutes before pulling it apart to serve with the vegetables.

Nutrition information per each of 12 servings with 4 ounces meat:

Calories 430

Fat 22 g

Sodium 370 mg

Carbohydrates 24 g

Saturated fat 7 g

Total sugars 3 g

Protein 34 g

Cholesterol 90 mg

Dietary fiber 4 g

Exchanges per serving: 1 ½ starch, 4 medium-fat protein.