What Is Pancetta?

What Is Pancetta?

Pancetta is an Italian type of salt-cured pork belly. Black pepper, spices, or herbs may be included in the salt to add flavor. Pancetta is sold in slabs or in rolls that are tied up or put in a casing to keep their shape, then sliced into thin rounds. Unlike some cured meats such as prosciutto, it must be cooked before it can be eaten.

How To Cook Pancetta

How you want to cook pancetta will depend on how you've purchased it. If you have a larger slab, you can cut it up into lardons or cubes for quick and easy rendering in a skillet on the stovetop. Try starting over lower heat to render the fat, then turning up the heat to crisp the pieces towards the end of the cooking process. 

Sliced pancetta can be cooked the way you would thick-cut bacon, either on the stove or in the oven. To help sliced pancetta cook evenly in the oven, you can lay out slices on a parchment-lined baking sheet, add a layer of parchment, and then top the slices with another baking sheet so that the top sheet holds the slices flat. Put the slices on an Italian-style BLT, or crumble them over a salad or pasta dish as a flavorful garnish. 

What Does Pancetta Taste Like?

Pancetta has a salty, meaty flavor and a texture that can range from chewy to shatteringly crisp, depending on how it's prepared. When chopped into little lardons or cubes, the cooked result will be crispy on the outside and chewy and meaty on the inside. When sliced and fried, it will crisp quickly into crunchy shards. Pancetta will add rich, umami flavor as well as saltiness from the curing process, so keep that in mind when adding salt to dishes incorporating pancetta.

Pancetta vs. Bacon

It's similar to bacon, but pancetta is not smoked. Both are salt-cured pork bellies, but bacon gets a heavier smoky flavor. If you're looking to add salt and a meaty richness to a dish without overpowering the other ingredients, skip the bacon and choose pancetta instead. 

Pancetta Recipes

Pancetta is often one of the first ingredients used in a recipe, as its flavorful fat can be rendered and used to cook everything else in the dish, with the crisped pieces added back in at the end. Similar to bacon, thin-sliced pancetta can also be used to wrap other foods before cooking and add juiciness, texture, and flavor to the finished product.

• Pancetta Risotto
• Garlic and Pancetta Stuffed Pork Chops
• Penne Pasta with Asparagus, Pancetta, and Cherry Tomatoes

Where To Buy Pancetta

Pancetta may be purchased from your grocer or butcher. At the supermarket, you're likely to find it already cut up into short sticks or cubes or thinly sliced in plastic-like cold cuts with the bacon or other deli meats. Portions of slab pancetta may also be sold vacuum-sealed in plastic and refrigerated or frozen. 

You can also find pancetta at many butcher shops, high-end delis, and specialty food shops. If your purveyor has a butcher or deli counter that can cut meat to order, it's worth asking them to cut off a fresh slab or slices for you. 

Storage

Store pancetta away from raw meats in your refrigerator in its original packaging until you're ready to use it, and be sure to use it by the date on the package. After opening, refrigerate pancetta in an airtight container or wrapped well in plastic wrap. Pancetta can also be frozen, either unopened in its original packaging or well-wrapped in plastic or a zip-top bag. When freezing thin slices, layer a piece of parchment or waxed paper between the slices so you can separate them easily to use as needed.

Nutrition and Benefits

Pancetta is high in protein as well as both saturated and unsaturated fat. Because of its richness, pancetta is typically used in recipes to subtly enhance flavors or as a garnish.