Iron-clad pork belly and Otis Dining Hall truffle noodles Cacio e Pepe

Check out the full post at Yummy Lummy.

Have you ever heard of iron-clad pork belly? On Thursday night, over on Random Yummy, I posted a recipe demonstrating how I tied two stainless knives either side of a strip of pork belly to keep the meat tender and juicy while the crackling got crispy and crunchy.

I also cooked some fresh Italian noodles, also known as pasta, from Otis Dining Hall which I received after dining there last Friday night.

I’m guessing this what Otis Dining Hall calls Truffle fettuccine “Cacio e Pepe” with truffle and miso butter, pecorino cheese and specialty seasoning. According to Google Translate, this means cheese and pepper.

In my mind, this is a fusion meal noting the love of pork belly by Asians and the love of pasta by Italians. One of my brothers went to Italy for a kayaking competition. I’d like to go to Italy and take cooking lessons and spend a day breaking down a pig. It’s my hope that the Italians recover well from the ravages of COVID-19. Hopefully, the world we live on will recover so that visiting other countries is possible again.

I ate this iron-clad pork belly meal while participating in a work teleconference. In my mind, this is working from home done the right way 😃👍

Ingredients

Pork belly

• 1 Strip Pork belly
• 3 Lengths Cooking twine
• 2 Stainless steel knives
• Iodised salt

Pasta

• 2 Cups Truffle fettuccine
• 2 Tablespoons Truffle and miso butter
• 2 Tablespoons Pecorino cheese
• 2 Tablespoons Specialty seasoning courtesy of Otis Dining Hall
• 3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon Very coarse freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Pork belly

1. Heat the toaster-oven to 200 °C.
2. Remove the strip of pork belly from its plastic vacuum packaging.
3. With some absorbent paper kitchen towel dry the skin as much as possible.
4. On a cutting board align two stainless steel knives to either side of the strip of belly pork.
5. With three lengths of cooking twin bind the knives to the strip of pork belly.
6. Use whatever knots you like. I like to use surgical knots which I learnt in medical school.
7. Crumple a sheet of baking paper with your hands into a tight ball and unfurl it so it becomes easier to lay on a baking sheet.
8. Put the iron-clad pork belly strip onto the baking paper and rub some coarse iodised salt onto the porcine skin.
9. Put the pork into the toaster oven for 40 minutes so the crackling gets crisp and crunchy and the meat stays succulent, tender and soft.
10. Once cooked, snip the twine with cooking sheers and pull the knives from the flesh to reveal how the steel conducted the heat and yet contained the juices.
11. With a sharp cooks knife, cut the strip into approximately 1 cm rectangular prisms.

Pasta

1. Bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil.
2. Cook the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid before draining.
3. Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the foam from the butter subsides.
4. Add the pepper and cook, stirring, until lightly toasted, about 1 minute.
5. Add the pasta and up to ¾ cup of the reserved cooking liquid, tossing to coat.
6. Sprinkle the Parmesan on top and continue to cook, tossing, until the cheese is melted and the pasta is well coated, about 2 minutes.
7. Add a little more of the cooking liquid to loosen, if necessary.
8. Season with salt and serve with additional Parmesan and pepper.

Plating up bit

1. Add the pork belly to the pasta.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•