Slow-Roasted Shredded Pork with Thyme, Taleggio and Lemon-Dressed Rocket Pizza

While Jamie Oliver has received his share of criticism, you can't knock the man's pizza. This is our 1,000th successful pizza using his dough recipe, used in conjunction with our vaunted pizza stone. This is actually one of his full pizza recipes and we'd been wanting to throw some taleggio cheese into something lately. I normally don't sauce my pizzas, but this called for it and it was yummy and quick. The taleggio melts BEAUTIFULLY and is worth making just for that.

Note: Slow-roasted pork is a beautiful thing. This recipe makes enough to top A LOT of pizzas. An even better idea would be to take the leftovers, whip up some homemade barbecue sauce and make yourself a few pulled-pork sandwiches. WATCH THIS SPACE for that within the next few days.

1 kg pork shoulder
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
sea salt and black pepper
olive oil
2 tablespoons basic tomato sauce
85 g taleggio cheese
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
small handfuls rocket
juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat your oven to 170C/325F. Score the pork shoulder. Bash the fennel seeds in a pestle and mortar and rub them over the pork, then season and rub with olive oil. Roast in the preheated oven for at least 4 hours, until the meat is tender and shreds easily. Then cool, shred up using a fork or your hands. Dress the meat with a little of the cooking juices - it will have almost the texture of a confit of duck.

Smear the tomato sauce thinly over the pizza base and scatter over a small handful of your roasted pork and some small torn-up pieces of taleggio. Sprinkle with the thyme leaves, drizzle with olive oil and cook until crisp and golden. Dress the rocket with a tiny bit of lemon juice, scatter over the pizza and serve.