Ingredients: Florence Knows Pork

One Cannot Live By Art Alone

 I have made some notes  from Liz DiGregorio’s two intriguing posts about visiting Florence, as I had no idea that it boasted a vibrant contemporary art scene. Her posts  also  made me hungry. Although Florence certainly has its food tourist traps (second to Venice) I have had some great meals, snacks and gelato on the street to go along with the necessary immersion in this incredibly art-dense city. Certainly Florentine cuisine made an impression on me. And I have enjoyed exploring some of its dishes by cooking a few Florentine recipes from cookbooks and websites dedicated to Italian cooking, such as Giallo Zafferano and La Cucina Italiana. Another member of this household cannot get beyond ordering Bistecca alla Fiorentina  (which I don’t try to recreate because you can’t get Chianina beef in the US) nor did he share my happiness in dining on Trippa alla Fiorentina. But this dish is one we agree on, and I’ve made it many times. And of course the web is littered with variations on the basic recipe for Florentine Roast Pork.

Ironically, I’ve had the best luck with a recipe from an Australian book. The Food Of Italy is filled with remarkably spot-on and easy-to-accomplish regional recipes, and the photographs make you feel that you are right there.  It was sent to me by the publishers in 2000, when La Cuisine was still in business, and all the Cuisinettes fell in love with it. Unfortunately, the publishers had thought that the distribution rights in the US had been  cleared. Something went wrong in the negotiations, and we could not order the books for resale in the shop.  It was a shame, as I probably have used this book as frequently as I have those from The River Cafe in London. 

The Other White Meat

I would like to interject here that among the many disservices inflicted on us by our friendly  industrial meat industry, one of the worst is their success in turning a once flavorful (with the help of porky layers of fat) meat into a dry and flavorless competitor to the dry and flavorless turkey breast division. You can pile up as many slices as you want in a  pork deli sandwich, but it will still need to be slathered with some sort of “dressing” to make it go down. Compare that with the porchetta sandwiches in Tuscany.

We used to be happy with  our pork until, sometime after the 1960s, we became concerned with weight gain and were advised to eat more chicken and fish (which many Americans, including someone near and dear to me, find hard to do). Poultry was considered leaner, healthier, less caloric. So when The National Pork Council saw its profit numbers dropping substantially (like in millions of dollars), they hired an advertising agency. The firm created a multi-pronged campaign  (Superbowl, TV, celebrity chefs, recipe developers for magazines and newspapers) to market pork as just as lean as poultry. In addition, new feeds were introduced to pork producers, and leaner breeds were developed so that today, conventionally raised pork is 75% leaner than it was in the 1950s. The amount of pork sold has indeed risen into the billions of dollars, so much so that China, by way of its ownership of Smithfield,  is now the  largest conventional  pork producer in the US. 

Provisions And Prep

You have alternatives by choosing smaller and usually organic or regenerative pork farmers. Berkshire Pork is probably the best known of the Heritage breeds. D’Artagnan has some listed as does Heritage Foods – they list some tantalizing breeds that you can choose from, such as  Red Wattle and Old Spot. Locally  I use The Organic Butcher of Mclean for pork.  This time I chose a three rib roast of pork and asked them specifically to leave that layer of fat …you know, just in case. I may ask them to add an extra layer the next time. 

This florentine roast pork recipe has fennel cooked as a side dish with one of the requested onions. I slice the roasted onions that have been the rack for the pork and add them to the cooked fennel at the end. Don’t be shy about making deep cuts into the pork to insert the herb paste. The sauce is outstanding, and there is no finer side dish than the Italian style roast potatoes. Simply cut up into  approximately peeled potatoes into one or two inch (2-4cm) cubes and cook them with a bay leaf, an onion and a carrot in a pot of salted water (I always start them in cold water). You want them to be only barely tender. Spread them out on a sheet pan – I use a Silpat as a less messy liner –  and drizzle with some olive oil, salt and pepper, some chopped rosemary and thyme and bake in a preheated 350F (175C) oven until they are lightly golden with touches of brown. You can’t ask for a  more heavenly meal.