Guanciale

Guanciale

What it is

Pork jowl — guancia means cheek — cured with salt and pepper and hung until its fat turns to perfume. Rome guards it jealously: without guanciale there is no true carbonara, no amatriciana, and suggesting bacon in its place is the fastest way to start an argument in Trastevere.

In the kitchen

Start it in a cold pan and let the fat melt slowly to glass-crisp — that rendered gold is the sauce; never add oil beside it.

Goes with

Egg Parmesan Tomato Black pepper White beans

Same species

Andouillette Boudin blanc Natural casings Caul fat Chorizo Ciauscolo

Also used with

Cicerchia Emmer wheat Mammola artichoke Reblochon Borlotti bean Savoy cabbage

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