Every time I watch Chef, my mind is instantly transported back to early ‘90s Florida, where nine-year-old Chris had just been on the Terminator 2: Judgment Day ride at Universal Studios, and was about to travel south to Key West to smash his first-ever Cubanos sandwich!! Jon Favreau has opened the floodgates to all my memories of that beautiful Cuban sandwich - the roast pork, the salty ham, the mojo sauce, the pickles, the Swiss cheese... Fuck me... WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE?!
I decided to give this nostalgic recipe a lil twist by serving it as a PIZZA feat. naughty pork belly with hot-sauce burnt ends, all cooked in my darling, beautiful, sexy Gozney Roccbox. Let's go.
Ingredients
Pork belly slices
Stock
Caraway
Fennel
Cumin
Bay leaves
Sweet mini peppers
Chillies
Orange
Olive oil
Garlic
Coriander
Sea salt
Sweet paprika
American mustard
Swiss cheese (Gruyère)
Parma ham
Pickle
Dill
Method
I used slices of Welsh pig belly pork simmered in stock and spices (like carraway, fennel, cumin and bay leaves). Simmer for about an hour, then leave to chill overnight.
Mojo sauce time! This is going to be the base of the pizza - halve some little sweet peppers, chillies (for the kick), and an orange. Add to the pan along with a drizzle of olive oil, give everything a little shake and into the Roccbox. You'll want all the chillies and peppers to charr, it's gonna turbocharge the flavour. Get a bit of burnt orange in there too.
After just 30 seconds in the Roccbox you'll see a good char developing already!! Take the pan out at this point and give everything a little flip with a pair of tongs, then pop the pan back in the Roccbox for a few more seconds. Remove the pan, spread the veg out on a board and leave to cool down. Charring these and keeping the blackened skin on just takes the mojo sauce to another dimension. What I also like to do when I fire up the Roccbox is to get some garlic, wrap it in foil, oil, boom - golden garlic nuggets of LOVE.
If you've got a blender, throw the peppers and chillies in there and whizz it up (cutting it with a knife does make it tastes better though) then squeeze some of the orange juice in.
Add the roasted garlics and coriander, chop it all up and add a glug of olive oil. Put everything into a little bowl, add a pinch of sea salt and some sweet paprika.
Now, time to pimp up the pork belly - burnt-ends, hot sauce style. This is so simple!! Put the pork slices in a pan and cover in your favourite hot sauce, give it a little shake then add honey for that beautiful burnt char. Then into the Roccbox, where it should start to caramelise straight away (crazy quick, genius kit). Take the pan out.
Let's go, dough!! I used a Neapolitan dough ball that had been fermenting for 72 hours but I can't tell you the recipe... I had to do it all by eye 'cause my scales were dead! So, go with your favourite dough recipe and take your time stretching it out. Like the master Lee Tiernan once told me, you gotta let the weight of the dough do all the work - Aikido style!
It ain't a Cubanos pizza without American mustard - squeeze over the dough, then on with the mojo sauce (more like a salsa tbf) and Swiss cheese (I hit mine with loads of Gruyère). Add the filthy, naughty belly pork and - to finish off - some Parma ham. Rip it up for those beautiful pockets of salty cured ham! Onto the peel, give the dough a little stretch, then into the Roccbox. Look for that gorgeous leoparding - don't worry Carole Baskin, nobody's skinned a big cat for this - it's just the magic of fermentation!! Take out after 60 seconds.
You've gotta have some pickles in a Cubanos... Once they're on, finish off with a sprinkling of dill and, for some real Cuban vibes, a Montecristo cigar dunked in rum. YES.
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