East Village Italian: Porchetta Pork Sandwich Is Pricey but Tasty

September 25, 2008

The East Village is abundant with Italian restaurants but thin on Italian speciality shops where you can find great sandwiches and well prepared sides. Porchetta, which opened this week on 7th Street between 1st Ave. & Avenue A, provides just that but in a very streamlined manner; the only meat served is porchetta.

The fatty, moist and boneless Italian roast pork comes in sandwich form ($9 on ciabatta and topped with fatty crackling) and as a plate ($12) with the bean of the day and greens (broccoli rabe & swiss chard). Read on to find out what makes it so flavorful and how Porchetta can turn it into a value buy…

What makes Porchetta’s namesake dish so delicious

Think of porchetta as the jelly roll of pork. Rosemary, garlic, fennel, sage, salt and pepper are all cooked together, spread over the pork loin and rolled up like a jelly roll before being tied with butcher’s twine and roasted, usually for about two and a half hours. The result is a tender and juicy hunk of pork encased within fatty, crispy skin (crackling).

What makes Porchetta’s version so delicious is the subtly fragrant flavor derived from the rosemary, fennel and sage. It all combines to mask any hint of gamieness and depending on where you bite, deliver bursts of flavor.

Thoughts on the Ciabatta & Crackling

Sullivan Street Bakery’s ciabatta is delicious but it’s not the perfect fit for Porchetta’s sandwich as a result of the callous crackling. A flatter and less toothsome ciabatta would have enhanced the eat-ability. If they’re sticking with this version, however, a light toasting and perhaps a dab of extra virgin olive oil might improve the sandwich.

Then again, if there’s as much crackling on your sandwich as there was on mine, you don’t need anymore crunch. Although the crackling was laced with juicy bits of fat, its texture was too tough to blend with the tender porchetta. Instead of enjoying the complex flavor of the pork, you’re left battling the crackling. My favorite bites of pork were attached to spice-rubbed pieces of chewy, slightly crisp skin which I will specifically ask for in the future.

Why Value is Lacking & How to Fix It

At $9.75 (including tax) for a small sandwich of nothing more than roast pork and bread, I would sooner go for a similarly priced, yet bigger, Italian hero at Faicco’s. Porchetta has some good things going for it: Pride in their product, great customer service and some damn tasty pork. But if they want lasting power among a younger generation of people, who want some bang for their buck, they should expand on the basic sandwich by adding one of their sides, such as a hearty spoonful of their crispy potatoes with burnt ends, to the serving.

Conclusion

As week one draws to an end for Porchetta, I look forward to eating chef-owner Sara Jenkins’ other pork creations. The East Village could really use a go to Italian sandwich spot, I hope the black and white tiled storefront on 7th street fills that void. In the meantime, my next stop on the sandwich trail is at Caffe Emilia, an Italian sandwich shop owned by the Gnocci master at Gnocco.