Pancetta

Pancetta is basically a streaky bacon, coming from the belly of pork. Pancetta stesa is cured for about three weeks and then is hung to air-dry for up to four months. Pancetta stesa is widely used in the Italian kitchen, and it has a depth of flavour that cannot be equalled by any streaky bacon. A leaner pancetta is rolled and tied – arrotolata – and flavoured with herbs, cloves, nutmeg, salt, pepper, garlic and sometimes fennel seeds, and then air-dried as well. A smoked pancetta, affumicata, comes from the Alto Adige, Valle d’Aosta and Friuli regions; it is usually fattier.