Florentine-style roast pork with rosemary and fennel seeds

Buy free-range pork for this dish if you can, with a generous 1-2cm/1/2-3/4 inch thick layer of fat, which will keep it moist and well-basted during cooking. And if you have time, stuff the joint with the rosemary and garlic mixture the day before, which will allow extra time for the wonderful flavours to permeate the meat.

Serves 6

1 x 1.5kg/3lb boned loin of pork, skin removed and left un-rolled, plus the bones

2 fat garlic cloves

The leaves from 3 sprigs of rosemary, plus a few extra sprigs left whole

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7. Start to chop the garlic on a board, then add the rosemary leaves and chop them together until quite fine. Add to the fennel seeds with 2 tablespoons of the oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper and mix together into a paste. Spread the mixture over the cut face of the pork, from which the bones have been removed, then roll up the joint and tie it at 2.5cm/1inch intervals along it’s length with string. Rub over a little more oil and season all over with a little more salt.
2. Put the rest of the rosemary sprigs and the bones into the base of a roasting tin and put the joint of pork on top, fatty-side up – the bones will act like a natural trivet. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, then lower the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and cook for a further 1 hour and 20 minutes (i.e. 25 minutes per 450g).
3. Remove the pork from the oven and lift the joint onto a board. Cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 15 minutes before carving into thin slices.

Recipe by Debbie Major