Pancetta!! Cured But Uncooked Marvel 🌞

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Last edited Mon Dec 22, 2025, 11:34 AM - Edit history (1)

The 2 Main Types Of Pancetta, Explained
By Michelle Welsch

For meat lovers, pancetta is a Swiss army knife of an ingredient that can quickly build flavor into pasta dishes and other favorite recipes. Much like bacon, pancetta is made from the meat of a pig's belly, though it goes through a different curing process. While bacon is cured in nitrates and salt, pancetta can offer additional flavors of nutmeg, black peppercorns, and cloves. Cuts are first salted and then marinated in brine that can be seasoned with spices like rosemary and garlic. The meat is left in humid environments with low temperatures.

Pancetta can be eaten uncooked on charcuterie boards and can be presented as bite-sized cubes or thinly sliced pieces of meat. Unlike bacon's crispy texture, it can be smooth, almost silky in texture. Under the umbrella of pancetta, you'll find several different varieties for purchase, including two main ones — arrotolata and stesa. Depending on your intention for serving and the recipes you're cooking up, you may opt for one or the other. But what sets them apart from each other?



The rolled up delicacy of arrotolata pancetta

Arrotolata, or rolled pancetta, are finely sliced pieces that can be plated easily onto a charcuterie board. For the rolled versions, after the meat is brined and salted, it is manipulated so that the pig fat is visible on the outside of the pancetta, then packaged in a tight casing and smoked should the preparer want to impart a smokier flavor. Rolled pieces of pancetta can be left for several weeks until properly cured.

Rolled pancetta can have centers that add flavor to the meat, like pancetta coppata, which is rolled around coppa — a cured meat you shouldn't overlook either. Pancetta affumicata is cured with salt and smoked to deliver a rich taste akin to the slices of bacon you may be familiar with while still maintaining a tender texture. These slices can also be easily folded up into a sandwich or stacked on top of a pile of greens for a satisfying, easy to serve salad.


The sumptuous addition of stesa pancetta

Stesa, the word for flat, refers to the pancetta that is used to dice up, cook, and toss into recipes. These elongated pieces are first trimmed then dry-salted and spiced before they are ready to be cured. Since these pieces of pork meat offer white, fatty layers, the taste can be soft and almost delicate in flavor. Stesa can be sliced thinly or cubed, depending on the intended recipe and use. Pasta dishes, casseroles, and savory pies are easy destinations for this kind of meat.

Whether you're whipping up a creamy and comforting gnocchi dish or pairing pancetta with asparagus for a fresh pasta dinner, taking a slab of stesa pancetta home to your kitchen can be an instant upgrade. Among its many applications, you can also whip up a garlicky pasta dish that combines pancetta and mushrooms.

However you choose to serve pancetta, carnivores are sure to appreciate the rich flavor that each piece of pancetta offers — and may come to prefer this meat when given the option of choosing between bacon and these spiced products.

Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/1758787/two-types-pancetta/

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Feeling brave? Care to try your hand at making some?
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Homemade Pancetta Recipe (Authentic Italian Style)
By Christina


Servings: 1 .5 lbs
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes

A simple way to use your refrigerator to make homemade pancetta.

This homemade pancetta recipe is incredibly easy to make. Using the freshest, and best quality pork belly that you can find is the most important criteria, but most of the work is done by just waiting.

Ingredients

2 lbs fresh pork belly slices with rind (preferably organic), do NOT use pork which has previously been frozen
1 cup Kosher salt please don't worry about measurements on this, just follow the directions
8 oz dry white wine inexpensive
2 tsp black pepper more or less
2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional - more or less, as desired)
2 tsp ground cayenne pepper (optional - more or less, as desired)


Instructions

Day 1
Salt the pork pieces generously (like a light blanket of snow) with
Kosher salt and leave for 24 hours in the fridge.
Do not substitute with other salt, it will not work properly.

Day 2
The next day, rinse the pork with water, pat dry with a paper towel,
and rinse in white wine, but do not pat dry. You will be throwing away
the white wine, so try to use as little as you can to still rinse the meat.
This helps to preserve the pork.

Prepare a plate or tray with the desired amount of pepper in any
combination. (The amount shown did not make a very spicy
pancetta.) Mix all the pepper together.

Rub the pepper into the pancetta pieces until well coated, adding
more pepper as needed. Again, measurements are not critical.
Use as much as you like. Set aside on waxed paper.

You will need a small tray which will fit long skewers to rest upon.
This creates something that the pancetta pieces can be placed on
to dry so that the air moves around it. You can see what I have done
in the photos above. Place the pieces of pancetta spaced apart on
top of the wooden skewers and place in a well ventilated fridge (not
crowded).

The following 2 or 3 weeks

The pancetta pieces will be kept in the refrigerator, loosely covered
with wax paper, for about 2 to 3 weeks. Turn the pieces everyday (using
all 4 sides) until the pancetta has cured without becoming overly dry. If
you used 2 lbs of pancetta, it should weight approximately 24 oz when
it's cured.

At this time, my preference is to seal it with a food sealer, which locks
out all the air, allowing the pancetta to keep refrigerated a longer period
of time.

Finally, you can use the pancetta however you choose, but do not eat
it without properly cooking it first.

Notes

*As with any uncooked, cured meat product, there are risks involved
if the product is not made correctly, or if it is not cooked thoroughly. I
take no responsibility for any illness incurred from using this recipe.

Please don't pay much attention to the amounts of ingredients listed.
Nothing is critical, and if you don't like spicy pancetta, you can omit the
hot peppers.


https://www.christinascucina.com/homemade-pancetta-how-to-make-pancetta/

Even when you're NOT having pork, it's what's for dinner!

Delizioso!!