Pancetta is often called Italian bacon. That's a true enough description, but unlike American bacon, which is most often smoked, pancetta is unsmoked pork belly that is cured in salt and spices such as nutmeg, pepper and fennel. It's then dried for a few months.
Outside of Italy, pancetta most often comes rolled (rotolata) so that the fat and muscle spiral around each other. Pancetta can also be made as a slab (stesa) so that the fat is mostly on one side. Rolled pancetta is normally cut into circular paper-thin slices before being fried, while slab pancetta is usually chopped or diced before being added to a dish.
Pancetta adds a distinctive pork flavor to pasta and other dishes, without infusing into them bacon's smokiness. In the U.S., it's a common substitute for guanciale, which is the cured pork cheek that is the traditional base for many classic pastas, like carbonara or all'amatriciana.
Recipe: Browse Cookthink's pancetta recipes.
Reference: Browse Cookthink's bacon recipes.
Reference: How to prep pancetta (Cookthink)
Reference: What is guanciale? (Cookthink)
"Al dente" means "to the tooth" in Italian. (Like "terroir", it's one of those concepts that poorly translates into English.) The phrase refers to the desired texture of cooked pasta, which should be soft but still slightly firm at the core of the noodle (or shell or spiral or alphabet letter). Some cooks define "al dente" as "not hard and not soft."
Pasta cooked "al dente" should require some chewing but not crunch or stick to the teeth when chewed. The firm texture should allow you to taste some of the pasta's flavor. Overcooked pasta tends to be mushy and flavorless.
So how do you know when your pasta is "al dente"? In my house growing up, we threw a strand of spaghetti at the wall -- as soon as it sticks, it's done. The problem with that test is that overcooked pasta sticks to the wall, too. So now I just use my teeth: Before I think it's ready, I draw a piece of pasta from the pot, let it cool a few seconds and take a bite. If it's ready, my mouth knows.
Related: What's the point of putting oil in my pasta water?
Related: How to cook garlic for pasta
Pasta alla carbonara (usually spaghetti, but occasionally linguine or bucatini) is a family of Italian pasta dishes based on eggs, parmesan, pancetta or guanciale and black pepper.
Carbonaro means charcoal-burner in Italian, but the connection is unclear. Some food historians believe the dish may have been popular among charcoal makers working in the Apennine Mountains; or perhaps it is called carbonara simply because of the specks of black pepper it is seasoned with.
I love the smooth mildness of cooked garlic. This is a quick way to get that while boiling your pasta.
When the salted water comes to a boil and the pasta is tossed in, also toss in any number of unpeeled garlic cloves. If the pasta being used cooks more quickly (like fresh pasta), add the cloves to the boiling water about 2 minutes before adding the pasta. If the pasta -- such as ziti -- takes longer to cook, wait until about 7 minutes of cooking time are left and then add the garlic.
When the pasta is al dente -- after 6 to 9 minutes -- drain it. To peel the cooked garlic, hold the papery tip of the garlic peel in one hand and use a wooden spoon to press downward, towards the root end of the clove. The clove should just pop it out.
Reference: What does al dente mean? (Cookthink)
Reference: What's the point of putting oil in my pasta water? (Cookthink)
Fettucine Alfredo is a rich pasta dish named after Alfredo di Lello, a Roman restaurateur who supposedly created it in the 1920s for his pregnant wife.
What he was really doing is just making a rich version of the classic Italian dish fettucine al burro and slapping his own name on it. Legend has it that his celebrity American clientele brought news of it to the States, and the rest is history.
But if classic Italian fettucine al burro is made with fresh fettucine, sweet butter and grated parmesan, the Italian-American Alfredo sauce is gluey and made richer with the unnecessary addition of heavy cream. It is often further mucked up with ham, peas, garlic and other ingredients.
Despite the name, Alfredo sauce can be used on other noodles, like orecchiette.
what you should know
Often called "Italian bacon," pancetta is different from its American counterpart in one important way. Bacon is usually smoked (and only sometimes cured), while pancetta is pork belly that is cured and spiced but not smoked.
roll vs. slab Pancetta can be prepared in two ways: as a roll (rotolata), in which the fat and muscle spiral around each other; and as a slab (stesa), in which the fat is almost entirely on one side.
make and prep your own Rolled pancetta is most often sliced paper thin. With slab pancetta, you often get a slightly thicker slice you can then dice. (If you want to cure, roll and age your own pork belly, check out Chow's step-by-step guide on making pancetta.)
if you lack guanciale Pancetta is often used in place of guanciale, which is the less commonly available cured pork cheek called for in traditional pasta dishes like carbonara and all'amatriciana.
if you lack pancetta If you can't find pancetta, you can use bacon in its place. Do you need to blanch the bacon before using it? Depends on how you want the finished dish to taste.
what you need
It's more focused on lardons than pancetta, but Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery is our favorite of Jane Grigson's contributions to the world of food reference.
More recently, author and blogger Michael Ruhlman has updated the world of charcuterie with the appropriately titled Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.
In Pig Perfect, Peter Kaminsky goes on a pilgrimage in search of the world's best cuts of pork. He mostly succeeds.
what you do
Tender, bitter and salty, this recipe for lima beans and radicchio with pancetta is Italianesque comfort food.
Not as comforting, though, as this fettuccine with pancetta, egg and parmesan, a variation of classic pasta carbonara.
Another classic winter dish: Italian cabbage and white bean soup.
This hearty lentil soup with chorizo and potatoes combines the mild spiciness of the Spanish sausage with the porky richness of pancetta.
Even though it's out of season, we've seen some beautiful asparagus lately. Food miles be damned: we've been eating a lot of this sautéed asparagus with pancetta and garlic.
