Baked leg of pork
( Cosciotto di maiale al forno )

Baked pork leg recipe

Preparation

• - Remove all visble fat from your pork leg.
• - Cut raw ham into thin strips.
• - Wash rosemary and sage leaves and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
• - Lard pork leg.
  Make small incisions with a pointed knife all over it.
  Insert a raw ham strip together with a litlle piece of sage leaf and some rosemary needles in every incision.

Cooking

• - Put 2 teaspoons olive oil in a large pan and let your pork leg fry slightly on both sides, on very low heat.
  Do not worry on olive oil amount. It's enough!
  Remove pork leg from the pan, add remaining olive oil and chopped onions.
  Let onion fry slightly.
  Be careful onion does not brown.
• - Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
• - Transfer onion and fat in a deep baking pan.
  Add beer and pork leg.
  Season to taste with salt and pepper (only if desidered) and bake, about 3 hours.
  Remember to turn over your pork meat frequently.

Just before serving

• - Thirty minutes before the end of cooking, remove pork leg from the oven and cut it up to the bone, then continue baking until meat is tender.
• - Serve pork leg hot, in a large serving plate.

Note

Tips

• - Accompany this dish with baked potatoes.
  You have another possibility too: to fry slightly potatoes, cut into little pieces, on very low heat, on a non-stick frying pan. Str frequently and add dried rosemary too.

Menu planning

• - If you want to prepare a full Italian meal ...
  ... open your menu with some appetizers
  thenserve a first course based on pasta
  and then this pork leg.
  Finish with an apple tart.

Healthy eating

• - I considered a generous portion of this recipe for pork leg because it is a dish that you do not eat frequently. Once in a while you might grant an exception to the rule, especially when you share the table with family and friends :))

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Baked leg of pork "?

My husband and I like Bonarda dei Colli Piacentini to pair to this baked pork leg.