Lorenzo’s pork fat butter with rosemary and salt

We first met Lorenzo at the 2012 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival when we attended an event with him and his mentor and family friend, the renowned Italian butcher Dario Cecchini. Lorenzo fell for Australia and we fell for Lorenzo so we lured him up to Feather and Bone to work in our team. But six months later, on the brink of us sponsoring him, Lorenzo fell in love again, this time with a Finnish backpacker who led him off to Finland, where he eventually embarked on a new career in International Business and Logistics and lived happily ever after with his new wife. Fortunately, he left us with the recipe for the delicious pork fat butter that he learned at Dario’s Macelleria Cecchini.

Lorenzo Ciatti, butcher and former staffer

Makes: 250 g | Preparation time: 20 minutes

200 g (7 oz) pork back fat, finely ground (if possible, ask your butcher to grind it twice, or chop it finely with a sharp knife so it’s easy to knead)

25 g (1 oz) rosemary leaves, very finely chopped

Finely ground sea salt, to taste

½ teaspoon red wine vinegar

Fresh crusty bread, to serve

Place ground pork fat in a bowl and sprinkle it with rosemary, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Add a splash of vinegar, adjusting to taste — the vinegar is for cutting the richness of the fat, but too much will ruin the balance of flavours.

Mix ingredients together with your hands until they’re sticking together, then tip contents onto a clean, flat surface (a kitchen bench made of stone is ideal). Knead the mixture with the palm of your hand as if you were kneading dough, folding it over and kneading again until the mixture is fully combined.

Scrape it all up, put it into a bowl and spread it liberally on fresh, crusty bread. It will keep refrigerated for a few days, but it’s best eaten fresh.