Perfect pork belly crackling roast with stuffing & apple sauce

Start with the apple sauce. Peel and core the apples. Finely chop half an apple and reserve for the stuffing. Roughly chop the remaining apples, and put into a saucepan with the sugar, butter and 4 tbsp water. Cook over a medium heat, uncovered, until the apples are soft and begin to break down, 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Spoon into a serving bowl, cover and set aside.

Finely chop the sage, parsley and rosemary leaves and put into a bowl with the sausagemeat. Add the reserved chopped apple half, the fennel seeds, if using, honey, lemon zest, mustard and seasoning. Mix well and set aside. Preheat the oven to 220ºC, gas mark 7.

Remove the pork from the packaging and lay fat-side down on a board, with a short end nearest to you. Shape half the sausagemeat stuffing into a log and place widthways across the middle of the pork. Roll the belly over the stuffing to encase it. Tie tightly with kitchen string – you may need 3-4 pieces to hold it all in place. Move to a baking tray, seam-side down. Rub the joint all over with the vegetable oil and scatter the salt evenly over the rind. Roll the remaining stuffing into 4 balls, then cover and set aside in the fridge.

Roast the pork in the oven for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 170ºC, gas I cook a roast most Sundays in autumn. It’s one of my favourite meals, partly because it takes me back to my childhood. Pork belly is succulent, full of flavour and a good cut for roasting. Here, the pork is dry aged, which intensifies the flavour and makes it easy to get crisp, crunchy crackling. My top tip for success with any roast is to make sure you rest the meat after cooking. It allows the muscle to relax, so the meat is tender, juicy and flavourful. It also gives you a chance to get all the side dishes cooked without worrying about oven space. If you’ve never tried making your own stuffing, give it a go – start with a good, flavoursome sausagemeat and it’s really easy. You can add different flavourings to ring the changes too. I’ve used fresh herbs, fennel, honey and mustard, but at other times I add apple, which goes well with pork, or keep it traditional with sage and onion. Leftovers make great sandwiches – try slicing the pork thinly on focaccia with salsa verde and rocket leaves for an Italian-inspired lunch that will cheer up any Monday. mark 3 and roast for 2 hours more – add the stuffing balls alongside for the last 30 minutes – until the crackling is crisp and the pork is tender and thoroughly cooked, with no pink meat and juices that run clear in the pork and stuffing. Rest the pork, uncovered, for up to 30 minutes. Remove the crackling and break into pieces if you prefer, then carve the pork into thick slices. Serve with the apple sauce, stuffing balls, and vegetables and potatoes, if liked.