This is a fantastic dish, especially for Sunday lunch with your family. Rather than worrying about how to bone the loin, ask your butcher to do it. It won’t take long and it means that all you have to do when you get home is flavour the meat and cook it. The great thing about this is there’s no waste. The day after you’ve cooked it you can make the most amazing suckling pig sarnie. Sage flavours the meat so well, but other herbs that also work are rosemary, bay leaves, tarragon, wild thyme and lemon thyme. And the salt helps to keep the crackling crisp.

Serves 4

1kg short loin of suckling pig
1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Zest of 1 lemon
A bunch of fresh sage, leaves picked
A bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked
Olive oil

1 Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.
Lay the loin of pork skin-side down on a work surface and lightly score it with a knife. Rub the garlic firmly over the meat to really get the flavour in there, then season it well and sprinkle with the lemon zest. Scatter the herbs over the middle of the pork loin, then roll it up tightly and secure it with some string, tied in a butcher’s knot if you know how to do one. If not, just tie it tightly to make sure it won’t come apart.

2 Oil the skin of the rolled pork and roast it in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. When cooked, it should be slightly pink in the middle and crisp and golden on the outside. If the crackling is soft and you want to crisp it up, just heat some olive oil in a pan and roll the pork in it until it spits and blisters. Serve with some fluffy mashed potato and broccoli.

Extracted from Kitchen Heaven by Gordon Ramsay, published by Michael Joseph on May 6 at £20, © Optomen Television and Gordon Ramsay, 2004. Food photography © Lis Parsons, 2004, reportage photography © Mark Read and Chris Terry, 2004. Available at the Books First price of £16 plus £1.95 p&p on 0870 160 8080

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