Roast stinco of pork with roasted potatoes

It would be worth asking your meat department to order fresh pork hocks for you just so that you can say you are having stinco for dinner.  Even better is if you can ask someone over to eat stinco.  It’s a name that doesn’t translate so well, but it’s really, really good to eat!

This was a restaurant meal, but it’s super easy to make at home.  I only make it if several are eating though, to conserve fuel.  It takes as long to cook one as it does to cook six.  This was so much meat I only ate about 15% of it, and the rest went to the kitties.  They were some kind of happy!

Although you may see smoked ham hocks most often, you should be able to get them uncured, too.  And they should be relatively cheap.  All you do is rub them with a little oil, then salt and rosemary, then cook them in a slow oven for a couple of hours until very tender.  The temperature can vary, but should never be really hot because that will toughen the meat.  I would cook it somewhere between 225°F and 300°F (110°C to 150°C)

If you want the potatoes as well (Am I insane?  Of course you want the potatoes!)  Peel them and cut them in chunks, then oil them, salt and rosemary them with the meat and put them into the same baking dish as the pork.  The long, slow cooking will make them creamy inside with slightly crisp corners and a salty surface.

I ate this dish at l’Osteria in Città di Castello.  With wine and service it cost euro 12.  A good buy.

Make this on a cold and rainy day when you are very busy.  Once you put it into the oven, you can go off for at least two hours and nevert give them a thought.