Chestnut and Pancetta Salad

I got the idea for this from two independently wonderful chestnut and pancetta soups I had, within a few weeks of one another, at Moro and the River Café; these two ingredients seem to do something to one another when put together; they become more themselves – one salty, the other sweet – at the same time as fusing into something greater, transformed. This salad lets them do whatever it is they do even more baldly: there’s not just the contrast between salt and sweet, but between crisp and