Recipe

Step 1: Crush the peppercorns, juniper and allspice berries in a pestle and mortar with the clove. Or if you haven’t got a pestle and mortar, just put them in a freezer bag and bash with a tin of something heavy. Turn into a bowl and add the bruised garlic cloves, molasses, oil, Worcestershire sauce and the sugar. Whisk together to disperse the molasses and sugar before adding the Marsala and wine.

Step 2: Put the pork loin into a large freezer bag and pour in the marinade, seal the bag well and try to get as much of the pork in the liquid as possible. Put in the fridge in a dish to avert accidents with leakages. Leave overnight or ideally for a couple of days. Keep the bones in the fridge, too, and wrap the rind in baking parchment to keep it dry.

Step 3: Let the meat, bones and rind come to room temperature before you cook them, and at the same time preheat the oven to 392ºF. Line a roasting tin with foil, as the sugar in the marinade will make the pan burn.

Step 4: Lay the bones from the pork loin in the bottom of the foil-lined roasting pan and take out the meat from its marinade and lay in on top. Pour 2 cups of the marinating liquid over the pork and put it in the oven, keeping back any marinade left to help make the gravy later. Roast the pork for 1-3/4 to 2 hours, basting the joint every now and then. The only way to tell the pork’s cooked is really by spearing it with a slim sharp knife. And be prepared for it to shrink enormously.

Step 5: After the pork has had an hour, put the rind in a shallow roasting tin and put it on the rack under the pork. It won’t actually cook that much underneath the joint, but it will render down slightly, getting ready for its blitzing later. So, when the meat comes out to rest, turn the oven up to the hottest it will go to let the crackling become everything it can become. After about 20 minutes, the pork will be perfect to carve and the crackling ready to be splintered into crisp amber shards.

Step 6: Meanwhile, make your gravy. Remove the bones from the oven tray (this is the best bit, cook’s treat) and pour whatever juices remain into a saucepan, tipping in the rest of the marinade and as much water as you need to dilute into a gravy. It’s so hard to give accurate directions here as, for example, liquid evaporates more in an electric oven than a gas one (and is why I prefer to cook meat in a gas oven). I’d start by adding about a coffee cupful off water and add more as the gravy heats on the hob. Whisk well before pouring into a warmed gravy boat or jug and again before serving to help disperse the oil, tasting as you do to make sure it’s as you want it.

Reprinted with permission from Nigella Lawson’s Feast: Food That Celebrates Life (2006 Knopf Canada).