Pulled Porchetta Sandwich

Last Christmas I created, what I thought was a masterpiece on the dinner table, well, at least in my opinion. Instead of the classic ham, turkey, or beef tenderloin that is commonly served for the holiday, I decided to introduce porchetta to the family. Porchetta in itself is pretty darn amazing. Porchetta is basically a whole lot of pork stuffed with a bunch of delicious herbs,as well as a bunch more pork. After the feast, I was left with a bunch of porchetta, so I decided to vacuum seal the leftovers and use it at a later date. That date just happened.

As I was thinking about what to make, and how to reheat the porchetta, I knew that my oldest son just loves pulled pork sandwiches, so I decided to place the porchetta in a slow cooker, go to work, and shred it to make sandwiches. I’ve never tried this with porchetta, so it was an experiment.  This might have been the best pulled pork sandwich I have made to date, well, I should not leave the Hawaiian pulled pork sandwich out of the scene.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of leftover porchetta
• 4 great, sturdy buns, sliced
• 1 bunch of spinach, cleaned and roughly chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• Mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup of water

Add the porchetta to your slow cooker, and cook on low for 9 hours.

Prior to making your sandwich, add the olive oil to a skillet, and bring it up to medium heat. Add in the garlic, and cook the garlic for a couple of minutes.

Add the spinach to the skillet, and bring the temperature up a bit. Gently toss, then add the water. Cover, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook for about 20 minutes or until it is completely softened.

To a large flat skillet, add the sliced buns and lightly toast the bottoms, and set them aside once toasted.

Next, remove the porchetta from the slow cooker, and place on a cutting board. Remove any loose, exterior fat and discard. Using two forks, begin shredding the pork until you have shredded all of the pork.

Now, you have a couple of choices here. You can go ahead and build your sandwich, or if you are like me, reheat the flat skillet to a medium-high heat, and toss in a bunch of the pulled porchetta, and build a light crisp to the porchetta.

When you are ready to build the sandwich, add a bit of mayonnaise to the bottom bun. Generously top with the pulled porchetta, then top with the garlic spinach. Add the top bun, open wide, and dig in.

My kid did not go with the mayo and spinach, and that’s fine. The mayonnaise is essential as it added a creaminess and balanced out the spinach. And that porchetta, that lovely porchetta just added huge flavors to the sandwich. You can taste those great herbs, along with the garlic that was already embedded in the pork; this was truly an awesome way to use up the leftover porchetta. Hope you enjoy.