Pork Loin with a Great Herby Stuffing

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• 1 pork loin, skin on, boneless
• 500 g sourdough or rustic bread
• 3 tbsp fennel seed
• rosemary
• 3 garlic cloves, finely diced
• 2 red onions, finely diced
• sage
• pine nut
• Steamed greens, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C/gas 6. Pat the pork skin bone-dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam is the enemy of crackling. Score the skin at 1cm intervals, cutting about 1cm deep through the fat but not into the meat.
2. In a pestle and mortar, pound the rosemary leaves, fennel seeds and a tablespoon of sea salt into a coarse, fragrant paste. Season the pork generously with salt and pepper, then rub the herb paste firmly into the scored skin and across the flesh, working it into every cut.
3. Toast the torn sourdough on a tray in the oven for 8–10 minutes until deeply golden and crisp right through — pale bread will turn to mush in the stuffing. Set aside.
4. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a wide stainless or cast iron pan over moderate heat. Add the red onions with a pinch of salt and cook for 6–7 minutes until softening and translucent. Stir in the torn sage and pine nuts and cook another 2 minutes until the nuts smell toasty and have taken on a little colour.
5. Add the garlic now, not earlier, and cook just until fragrant — 30 seconds, no more. Burnt garlic turns the whole stuffing bitter, so watch it and pull it off the heat the moment it smells sweet.
6. Pour in the balsamic vinegar and let it bubble for 20–30 seconds until it reduces to a glossy, syrupy coat. Tip the lot into a large bowl.
7. Add the toasted sourdough to the onion mixture and mix thoroughly so the bread soaks up every drop of the balsamic-dark juices. Taste, season, taste again — adjust now, not at the table. Leave to cool to room temperature; warm stuffing inside raw pork is a food-safety problem.
8. Cut a deep pocket lengthways through the centre of the pork loin with a long sharp knife. Push the cooled stuffing in firmly, packing it the length of the loin, then roll and tie at 3cm intervals with butcher's twine to hold the spiral in place.
9. Sit the pork skin-side up in a roasting tray and roast for about 1 hour, until the skin has blistered into shattering crackling and the internal temperature reads 62°C in the meat (it will carry to 65°C as it rests). If the skin hasn't fully crackled, blast under a hot grill for 2–3 minutes — watch it like a hawk, it goes from blonde to black fast.
10. Rest the pork for 10 minutes on a board, loosely tented — this is non-negotiable, the juices need to settle back into the meat. Carve into thick slices.
11. Plate the pork slices spiral-side up so the herby stuffing shows, scatter the fresh thyme leaves over the top, and tuck the lemon wedges alongside for each diner to squeeze of lemon over the crackling — the acid cuts straight through the rendered fat.