pancetta
Italian pork belly cured with salt and spices but not smoked, then rolled into a log and sliced or diced; used as a savory, fatty flavor base similar to bacon but without bacon's smokiness. Because it's uncooked when sold, it needs to be cooked before eating, unlike some other cured meats sold ready-to-eat.
Buying guidance
Check the label for pancetta versus pancetta affumicata (smoked) -- standard pancetta is unsmoked, and using the smoked version where the plain kind is expected adds a flavor that wasn't intended. Buy it sliced thin for wrapping or rendering quickly, or in a chunk for dicing into larger pieces that hold their shape.
Substitutions
- Bacon -- similar fat content and use, but smoky; expect a different flavor note wherever pancetta's cleaner pork taste was the point.
- Guanciale -- cured pork jowl, richer and more intensely flavored; use somewhat less.
- Prosciutto, diced -- leaner and drier, won't render the same amount of fat, so add a little extra cooking fat if using it as a swap.
Tips & common mistakes
Because it's raw when sold, not cooked or fully dried like some other cured meats, rendering it too fast over high heat browns the outside before the fat inside has a chance to render, leaving it chewy instead of crisp -- give it more time over lower heat.
Storage
It isn't smoked or as fully dried as a hard salami, so it doesn't keep as long once opened -- treat it like fresh raw pork for spoilage purposes and use it within about a week refrigerated, though it freezes well whole or diced for longer storage.