Pancetta

pancetta

What it is

Salt, pepper, often juniper or fennel, three weeks to three months, and no smoke at any stage — that absence is the whole definition. Rolled tight it is arrotolata, left flat it is tesa, and Italian kitchens keep them apart: the roll is for slicing raw, the slab for cutting into cubes.

In the kitchen

Cut it into thick lardons rather than thin strips — thin ones give up their fat and turn to leather in the same minute. Twenty minutes in the freezer and the knife goes through cleanly.

Goes with

Egg Parmesan Pea Sage Onion White beans Black pepper Tomato

Same species

Andouillette Boudin blanc Natural casings Caul fat Chorizo Ciauscolo

Also used with

Cipollini onion Pioppino Pointed cabbage Rosa di Gorizia Treviso tardivo Zolfino bean

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