Pancetta is a large slice of pork side, cured with salt, spices, and herbs. Unlike some other cured cuts of pork, it's easy to make, and this is handy because it's a common flavoring agent in Italian dishes.
Ingredients:
- Pork side, the cut used to make bacon (precise quantities below)
- Salt
- Garlic
- Peppercorns
- Mixed spices
Preparation:
Purchase a piece of pork side weighing about 4 - 41/2 pounds (1.8 - 2 k) and lay it flat in a deep flat-bottomed container, rind side down. Dust it lightly with finely ground (as opposed to coarse) salt. Grind a couple of cloves of garlic to a fine paste in a mortar and spread them uniformly over the meat. Cover it with cracked peppercorns and spices (just a touch of cinnamon, cloves, or nutmeg -- for this amount I'd go with a half teaspoon or less). Next, cover it with a uniform, thick layer of salt, pressing down so it sticks throughout.Leave the meat lie for 20 days, then shake off the excess salt, make a hole in one end with an awl, run a string through it, and hang it up in a cool well-ventilated place for a month.
It's now ready; you can use it in thin (1/8 inch, 1/4 cm) slices in whatever recipe calls for it.
A note: in southern Italy they also make a fiery variety of pancetta in which ground red pepper figures prominently in the spice mixture rubbed into the meat before the salt is added.
