Colin: When I worked with Gordon Ramsay, we did porchettas every day and it was a lot of work. But it’s easy enough at home – porchetta is great. For me, I think you should stuff it with a great stuffing.

Anthony: Yeah, it’s all about the stuffing.

Colin: So my idea for the stuffing is – we’ll talk about the crackling later; I already have so much to do, but that’s my department, too.

Anthony: What’s my department, then?

Colin: Selling meat to get the best crackling ever!

Anthony: Why are you talking about crackling? You’re meant to start with the stuffing!

Colin: Fine. We’re going to get some fat in there. So a pork sausage meat.

Anthony: Yeah, I like that for stuffing.

Colin: Alright, I’m talking. So I wanted to go a bit old school and put some sundried tomatoes in there, fennel seeds, sage.

Anthony: That’s the Italian flag right there! Red, white and green.

Colin: By the time it cooks it’s Irish – it turns a bit orange! Then I want to put some cavolo nero in there for veg. So when you cut it, it’s about the wow.

Anthony: We have the Italian flag by the Irish. The best cut for porchetta is definitely the belly. Nice and fatty. Ask your butcher to score the skin to make it nice and crackly. You need a bit of salt and a bit of olive oil.

Colin: The thing about crackling is ideally you want to buy the belly a few days before you’re going to use it. You want to leave it in the fridge and for the skin to dry out.

Anthony: Yes, that’s good, but if you’ve left it too late, what you can do is boil the kettle – have a cup of tea – and pour the hot water over the skin so it blisters.

Colin: Has my Croatian grandmother arrived?

Anthony: What happens is the hot water and steam send the skin into shock.

Colin: That’s just sent me into shock. I’m trying to draw the moisture out and this guy is enjoying a cup of tea with the pig!

Anthony: Listen to the butcher this time.

Colin: No, listen to the chef. The pig chef!

See here for the Chef and the Butcher’s porchetta with sage and fennel stuffing recipe.