Ask a man who knows his meat and he will tell you this: The cheap cuts are some of the best. Any jackass can blow 20 bones a pound on beef tenderloin -- silky, yes, but flavorless. You really want to pay top dollar for meat that requires bacon or butter sauce to taste like something?

Mario Batali knows his meat. And when he speaks of it, the Iron Chef savors his words as if they themselves were succulent bites: "Bone-in pork shoulder!" he proclaims when asked for his favorite roast. (It's often labeled pork "picnic" or "butt," for some reason, although it is not from the ass end of things.) "You'll never find it in Chinatown, because it's the first piece of meat to go," Batali says. "You'll always find it in white-guy town, because it's the last to go."

And, deliciously, it runs about $2.50 a pound. You just have to know how to cook the thing.

Like many inexpensive meats, this portion of pig is full of marbling and connective tissue that make for tough going unless you cook it a long time. But after a few hours of low heat, the fat (read: juicy flavor) melts gorgeously into the flesh. Myself, I'm partial to the Puerto Rican style, a traditional Sunday dish called pernil: Stabbed all over with a paring knife, slathered in olive oil, garlic, salt, and oregano, marinated for a day, and then slow roasted, it perfumes the house (and half the neighborhood) with wondrousness and yields a succulent, crispy-on-the-outside, fall-off-the-bone roast. (That's the other thing: You do want the bone in. More flavor.)

In the Batali house, says Mr. Molto, "we do it like a porchetta," -- that is, like a Tuscan-style suckling pig. He rubs the meat with fennel seeds, garlic, and rosemary, puts it in a 250 degree oven -- and he goes to bed. "Then I wake up and take it out," he says. "You need it to go eight hours. Then it needs to sit in its own juices -- and just sit there -- until it cools. Later, you reheat it in the same pan and carve it, and there's nothing better."

4 pounds boneless pork shoulder
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 bulb fennel, fronds chopped and reserved, bulb thinly sliced
2 pounds ground pork shoulder (you can use already-made sausages if need be)
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 eggs, beaten
4 red onions, halved

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Have your butcher butterfly pork shoulder to an even 1-inch thickness; you should have a flat piece of meat about 8 inches by 14 inches. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a saute pan, heat olive oil until smoking. Add the onion and fennel bulb and saute until softened and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add ground pork, fennel seeds, pepper, rosemary and garlic and cook until the mixture assumes a light color, stirring constantly, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool. Add chopped fennel leaves and eggs and mix well.

Spread the mixture over pork loin and roll up like a jelly roll. Tie with butcher's twine and place in roast pan on top of halved red onions. Place in oven and roast for 2 1/2 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F. Remove and allow to rest for 10 to 20 minutes. Slice into 1-inch-thick pieces and serve.

By Ted Allen