It’s almost ‘comfort food season’ and one of the many wonders of Abruzzo is its amazing food, most of the traditional Abruzzese food is so yummy and comforting that will make you feel not so sad about the fact that summer 2021 is gone and autumn is fast approaching (with the clocks going back an hour next Sunday 31st October!).
So, instead of whining about the end of summer and the proximity of autumn/winter we decided to embark on a journey across London to find Abruzzo’s all-time comfort food favourite: PORCHETTA!
This post is intended to be just the first part of a series of posts focused on delicious traditional Italian/Abruzzese dishes and food overall.
What is Porchetta?
Porchetta is the result of roasting a whole pig over a pit until it gets perfectly tender. Some butchers will fill it with tasty seasonal Italian herbs and spread salt all over it. You can eat it as you like, locals in Abruzzo will throw a few porchetta slices into a ‘panini’ or just have a healthier choice by eating it with some yummy lettuce, onion and tomato salad on the side.
This is how raw porchetta at the butcher’s looks like (@pizzicheria_grappelli)
Every small town and city in Abruzzo will have at least one porchetta truck that will get all its stock sold out within a few hours without a doubt. If you wait after lunch to get some Porchetta it is likely that you won’t find any.
So, as we said before, we wanted to do some research and find out if authentic Abruzzese porchetta could be found in London. Keep reading to find out who took the top spot of our research.
Where to find proper porchetta in London?
TOP SPOT: Porchetta and Grill
Address: Northcote Rd. Clapham Common. SW11 1NZ
We are very pleased to report back that we found a place in Clapham Common called Porchetta and Grill that took us back to Abruzzo with every bite of their porchetta sandwiches. This place took the top spot of our ranking without a doubt. Their food truck in Northcote Rd, looks exactly the same as the ones you can find in any town in Abruzzo.
Last Saturday we met Lorenzo and Serena, who were happily serving customers and were very friendly with us. After a few minutes of being there, it was very clear that Lorenzo’s food truck is very popular in Clapham and well known by the locals.
Enzo and Idania counted the minutes to eat Porchetta. Lorenzo (the truck owner) looking very happy and Serena was very focused on getting the orders ready.
Each of us had a porchetta sandwich for £6 and we were very satisfied with the portion of the sandwich, the taste and the price.
Their factory is located at Battersea Business Centre only 15 mins walking from the truck.
Their pork sausages are also quite famous and sold by the local Italian restaurants. As we were in ‘porchetta mode’ we decided this time not to try the sausages.
Armando is about to eat his porchetta sandwich without sauce.
We loved many things about Porchetta Grill, how friendly Lorenzo and Serena were, the location of the truck, nice atmosphere, the locals were very chatty when ordering their food, good prices and nice portions, but what really made us give them the top spot of our ranking was the authentic flavour of the porchetta! Even though you can have lettuce, tomato and the sauce of your choice with your sandwich, the porchetta is definitely the main ingredient and you can taste every inch of it. Having eaten porchetta plenty of times in Abruzzo since we were kids, we can confirm that the flavours were exactly the same!
The back of Lorenzo’s truck
Our Runner Up: The Black Pig London
Address: Borough Market, Borough High St, London SE1 1TL
The Black Pig is located in Borough Market, an amazing location so this is the perfect excuse to spend your Saturday browsing BM while you treat yourself to a porchetta ciabatta. We had to queue to get ours but the wait was worth it as the sandwiches were very tasty and the portion was big enough.
The Black Pig offers three ciabatta options, being honey truffle and parmesan pork ciabatta one of the most popular ones. They all cost the same, £8.5. If you are around the area and need a quick lunch to get you sorted for a few hours this is definitely a good choice.
Why are they our runner up? Simply because of one factor: FLAVOUR! The Ginger Pig has done an amazing job at adapting porchetta to the British palate, but Porchetta and Grill managed to keep that authentic flavour that ‘gli abruzzese’ love.
The Black Pig in the Borough Market
Porchetta & Grills vs. The Black Pig
You might want to try ...
Address: 51 Greek St, London W1D 4EH
Lina store, located in the heart of Soho, used to have Porchetta on its menu but this isn’t the case anymore.
However, it’s possible to buy porchetta online through this link: Porchetta Lina Store.
We haven’t tried the Lina Stores’s porchetta, but if we do we will let you know!
These place also have porchetta, but on in their names!
La Porchetta Pollo Bar in Soho ( W1D 4TW) and La Porchetta in Muswell Hill (N10 1DE) do not sell porchetta in any shape or form. When doing our research we found out that these restaurants are the standard Italian restaurants you will find in London but they do not sell porchetta.
The following places were sadly, permanently closed:
La Porchetta in Chalk Farm (NW1 8AN) and La Porchetta Islington (N1 1QY) are permanently closed hence why we couldn’t visit them as part of our research.
Bonus
Address: 41 Northcote Rd, London SW11 1NJ
In front of the Porchetta and Grill food truck in Northcote Rd, we found Pizzicheria Grapelli. While waiting for Armando, we decided to browse the store and what a good decision that was! In the butchery section, we found raw and cooked porchetta as shown in the two pictures below. We talked to Andrea, one of the butchers who is originally from Rome.
Pizzicheria Grapelli is perfect to get your fix of authentic Italian goodies or to buy a really nice present for your foodie friend.
Pizzicheria Grapelli is perfect to get your fix of authentic Italian goodies or to buy a really nice present for your foodie friend.
Finally, we are doing a little experiment and would love to have your help: if you go to Porchetta and Grill in Northcote Rd because you found out about them through this post, please take a picture and tag us on Instagram (@thecitynextdoor). If you are the first one to tag us and are also based in the UK we will get in touch to send you a little ‘abruzzese’ present!
