Pampanella

The pork is cut only after resting for at least two days at around 0 °C, and below 4 °C.

Check The butcher confirms how long the piece has rested, and it is still cold when you get it home.

Tip You need one whole piece of 3 kg, capocollo or loin, with the bone and the rind.

Tip Our guide: ask the butcher how long it has been kept in the cold room. At home keep it in the coldest part of the fridge, below 4 °C, until you start.

Have the butcher cut the whole piece into fairly thick slices, without cutting through the rind: the rind must keep the slices joined.

Check The slices open out like the pages of a book, all still held together by the rind.

Tip Our guide: slices about 3 cm thick, cut between the bones on a loin, down to the rind but not through it.

Tip A large piece is the point: the fat, the bones, the cartilage and the rind all add to the flavour as it cooks, so the dish is worth making for many.

Peel the 5 garlic cloves and chop them very finely. In a bowl, mix the 75 g of fine salt with the garlic, the 25 g of hot chilli and the 75 g of sweet paprika.

Check An even, deep red mixture, with no clumps of garlic or streaks of salt.

Tip Our guide: chop the garlic almost to a paste, so it spreads with the pepper and does not fall off in pieces.

Lay the meat in a long tray. Wearing gloves, spread the mixture with your hands over both sides of every slice, opening them apart as you go, until each is covered evenly and generously.

Check No bare meat anywhere: every face of every slice is coated an even red, the coating sticking to the meat.

Tip Our guide: use all of the mixture. An even coat that clings to the meat is what the town's De.Co. rules call a good pampanella.

Tip Gloves matter: the hot chilli stays on your skin for hours, and it burns if you touch your eyes.

Move the seasoned meat into a tray that holds all of it, with no gaps between one piece and the next.

Check The meat fills the tray in one tight layer, close up against the sides.

Tip Our guide: a steel tray, as the town's producers use, about 40 cm by 30 cm for 3 kg. If there are gaps, push the pieces together or use a smaller tray: the meat stays moister packed tight.

Lift off the straw paper, wet it, and lay it back over the meat.

Check The paper is damp all over but not dripping, and covers all the meat.

Tip Our guide: hold it briefly under the cold tap and shake it. Tuck the edges just inside the tray so that none hangs over the sides towards the oven walls.

Tip The damp paper keeps the pepper from scorching and turning black in the long roast.

Take the tray out of the oven. Remove and discard the paper, then carefully pour off the liquid and the fat.

Check Only the meat is left in the tray.

Tip Our guide: tilt the tray and hold the meat back with a spatula as you pour into a heatproof bowl; never pour hot fat into the sink.

When it is cooked, take the tray out of the oven and sprinkle the meat with vinegar.

Check The whole surface is lightly and evenly wet with vinegar.

Tip Our guide: about 3 tablespoons, sprinkled with your fingers or a spoon over the whole surface.

Cut through the rind between the slices and serve them hot, straight from the tray, or let them cool and serve them at room temperature, within 2 hours of leaving the oven.

Check Each slice is red all over, moist inside, with its piece of rind.

Tip Many in San Martino eat it as soon as it comes out of the oven, when its aromas are strongest; others prefer it cooled.

Tip Cooled meat is eaten, or put in the fridge, within 2 hours of leaving the oven. Whatever is not eaten: cut it into smaller pieces and put it in the fridge in shallow covered containers, and eat it within 3 days. Reheat it covered in the oven until it reaches 75 °C at the centre.