It's Bacon!

First, have you guys seen this Twitter account? It's something!

I was looking forward to tonight's dinner. Teresa described it as a traditional dish, hugely popular in Italy, and as "peasant food." One of my favorite Northern Italian dishes of all time is peasant food (see ribollita, which literally means "reboiled," I had it in Tuscany and it was hands down one of the best things I ate while there). Needless to say expectations were high. Were they met? Yes! Tonight's dinner was up there on the list in terms of tastiness. Bucatini All'Amatriciana is great!

This dish had pancetta, which is kind of like Italian bacon, so obviously totally delicious! Actually, while it was cooking it kind of reminded my of a Jersey classic, Taylor Ham (confession before this I had never actually cooked pancetta at home, only had it eating out at Italian restaurants).



This dish took about 40 minutes total time to make, there was a fair amount of prep, chopping you know? But it was really delicious. There was this great flavor, a little bit of spice, a really decent amount of salt (pancetta is cured pork), and some acidity. It all worked well together.


It was a hit with the family, too. There's none left. Even my (super slender) mother, who is under the weather with an upper respiratory infection and claimed to have "little appetite" because of this, had two servings! Just saying.
I would make this again in a heartbeat. Though next time I would make it with guanciale instead of pancetta. Teresa said in the book either could be used, but I kind of had the feeling that she was subtlety hinting to go with guanciale instead of pancetta. Sadly, the Italian deli up the street had just run out of guanciale a few days ago and didn't have any on hand. Next time though, I will plan ahead and use it instead!

Next meal will probably be blogged on Thursday as I am going away with some friends for the long weekend!