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What the heck is ... pancetta?
 If
you order the Stuffed Dates at Tapino, you will find that they are wrapped
in a crispy, salty, little raincoat of something that tastes somewhat
like bacon. But, its not! That little strip of meat hugging the date is
pancetta, pronounced “pan-CHET'-tuh” (not! pan-SET-tuh ).
It helps with the pronounciation if you wave your arms a little bit while
you say it. It is, afterall, an Italian word. We slice that little strip
from a roll of pancetta on our electric meat slicer, and try to cut it
about as thick as a piece of paper. If we do it right, we can get about
2.759 million pieces out of a pound of pancetta. So, just what is pancetta?
Basically, It is bacon, but it is different from the bacon you are used
to. Pancetta is a type of Italian bacon that is dry cured with salt, pepper,
and other spices, but is not smoked. Unlike English and American bacon,
which is taken from the sides and belly of the pig, may be smoked, and
is usually sold in flat slabs cut into slices, pancetta comes only from
the belly, is salt-cured but never smoked, and is generally sold rolled
up into sausage sha pes.
How do you use it? Pretty much like we use American bacon in cooking,
but you seldom ever see pancetta laying on a breakfast plate beside some
eggs. It even gets more complicated that that, if you really dig into
its history and details.
Pancetta is an Italian dry-cured pork meat, which is traditionally air-dried
up to four months and cured with salt, pepper, sugar, and other seasonings
such as herbs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. The very best pancetta is
made from the meat of the “Cinta Senese” breed of pig, native
to Italy. It is produced from the fatty / fleshy pork belly and is most
often available un-smoked. When smoked, it is generally in a slab form
that can be sliced into flat strips and is then referred to as Italian
bacon, not as pancetta. It is usually processed and rolled into a sausage
shape. Rolled, or round pancetta, which is never smoked, is produced by removing the skin from the meat and rolling up what we
would think of as a slab of raw bacon into a jellyroll that takes the
shape of a large sausage. Rolled pancetta is referred to as Pancetta Arrotolata
and contains less fat than American bacon. Either rolled or flat, pancetta
has a delicate aroma and a mild, lightly spiced, sweet flavor, which is
less sweet than domestic American bacon. Pancetta is also known as Placentian,
Rigatino, and Carnesecca. The Carnesecca version has been seasoned with
garlic, salt, spices such as pepper, but not sugar. Pancetta is occasionally
served raw as an antipasto or wrapped around other food products to complement
the flavor of the food. But, it is most commonly fried, or otherwise cooked,
to accompany, and flavor other foods or it can also become a main ingredient
for soups, stews, and pasta dishes. It is usually used as a flavoring
agent for dishes, added to sauces, stuffing, etc., rather than being eaten
as a separate food item. In Italy, there are numerous recipes called "all'amatriciana,"
which simply means "with pancetta." 
In Corsica, however, pancetta is considered a typically regional flavored
food, sometimes smoked, and is used like we use bacon.
That pretty well covers the basic “what is it?” but there
are lots of open questions about “what do I do with it?” The
most obvious of these is “Can I substitute something else for pancetta
if I don’t have any pancetta?” The short answer is “Yes,
of course! You could use regular bacon.” But, if you do, your friends
will mock you and your self-esteem will suffer. People often refer to
pancetta as Italian bacon, and it does come from the same general part
of the pig as American bacon — the belly. But bacon is smoked, while
pancetta is dry-cured with salt and pepper, and tastes distinctly different.
It is also more tender and considerably less salty than prosciutto. And,
it is moister and mellower than bacon because it has not been smoked.
Pancetta’s flavor is more piquant, but milder than bacon, and  pancetta
is somewhat more “chewy”.
A better substitute for pancetta is "fatty prosciutto or prosciutto
ends." However, that may not be any easier to find than run-of-the-mill
pancetta. Unfortunately, there is no wholly satisfactory substitute for
pancetta. So you might be content with smoked bacon in your dish instead
of pancetta, but the message here is that perhaps you shouldn't make the
switch when entertaining real Italians.
That brings up the next question: “What is the difference between
Italian pancetta and Italian prosciutto?” The answer here is much
clearer. Strictly speaking, “prosciutto” means "ham" in Italian. It
generically refers to the pork leg cut, and not to a specific method of
preparation. Pancetta is made from the pork belly, like American bacon.
Italian speakers also make a distinction between “prosciutto crudo”
(literally, "raw ham"), the dry-cured ham which English speakers
refer to as simply "prosciutto", and “prosciutto cotto”
("cooked ham"), which is similar to what Americans would call
"ham". Think of it this way: Pancetta is  somewhat
equivalent to our “bacon”. Prosciutto crudo is very similar to a dry cured, uncooked, Spanish Serrano Jamon (Don’t tell
any Spaniards I said that! They would tar & feather me!) Prosciutto
Cotto, on the other hand, is more like a traditional American cooked ham
– you know, like the spiral sliced ones. Any of these, however is
preferable as a food substance over the awful “canned ham”
or the absolutely horrific “processed ham loaf”!
The next question is often “Can I eat pancetta raw, or in a sandwich?”
Sure! Just like you could eat bacon raw, or in a sandwich! However, prosc iutto,
or even American ham is less greasy, and is drier and would, I think,
make a much tastier sandwich. The fat of even a fatty prosciutto seems
less greasy than pancetta. I don't want to make sweeping generalizations,
but it may be that many Italians relish a sliver of uncooked pancetta
now and then, but I have not run across many people in America who eat
it that way. Granted, I haven't met everyone in America, and I don't necessarily
know what everyone I have met does in the sanctity of his or her own kitchen.
But, I doubt that many of them are chomping on a raw pancetta sandwich.
Even in Italy, pancetta is much more widely used in cooking, where it
lends its unique "savory-sweet, un-smoked flavor" to many dishes,
than as a stand-alone food. One of the most popular things to do with
pancetta is to dice it into small pieces and then render it in a skillet
to create crispy little “lardons”. The rendered fat is left
in the skillet and used to sauté other foods.   The
lardons (in Mexico, these would be called “Chicharrones”)
can be removed from the pan and used like crumbled bacon on a salad, or
left in the pan to help flavor the other food. Either way, pancetta gives
a much deeper flavor than bacon – it's fantastic in dishes like
Spaghetti alla Carbonara.
Most supermarkets now sell pancetta . Certainly you can find it in any
specialty food market or Italian deli. Look in your grocery’s deli
section for the salami-like rolls, ready for slicing or chopping. It also
often comes prepackaged in thin slices and also small cubes. The pancetta
roll will last up to 5 months in your refrigerator. If you use it regularly,
cover with plastic wrap.  If
you use it infrequently, use parchment paper to wrap it so it can breathe.
You can also freeze it, tightly wrapped, for up to a year.
The very best way to get some pancetta, however, is to walk into Tapino
any night, smack down your six bucks and say “Hey! Gimme some of
those outrageous stuffed dates wrapped in pancetta!”. Wave your
arms in the air a little bit while you order. We’re still talking
about a food from Italy, you know.
Yep, that’s the best way. … Would I lie?
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