One of the highlights of the night for our guests was the Arrosto Maiale. In this case an oven-roasted whole pork belly with crispy cracklin. The basis for the recipe is from Gordon Ramsay and a clip from his "F-Word" television program on BBC.

I departed from the instruction on-line in several ways. Firstly, I used thickly sliced mushrooms instead of garlic on the bottom of the pan during roasting. My "hot oven" was 400 degrees for 2-hours. I didn't use the gravy from the drippings, rather, I kept the pan juices for another recipe. Secondly, I didn't have enough time to press the belly in the refrigerator after in roasted in the oven, I had enough time for the belly to rest at room temp for about 2 hours. Thirdly, rather than finish the cracklin in the oven for ten minutes, I chose to finish the cracklin in a deep pan over the stove. Basically, I turned the pork belly pieces, cracklin side down in a deep, non-stick pan with about an inch of pork fat in it, and slowly fry/saute the belly till golden brown.

Here's the finished product: