Home Made Pancetta. This homemade pancetta-unsmoked bacon (pork belly)-is cured with salt, sugar, pepper, juniper berries, bay leaves, nutmeg, and thyme. It's an ingredient in many Italian pasta dishes such as carbonara and as a substitute for guanciale in all'Amatriciana, which can be hard to find. Homemade pancetta is incredibly easy to make.

Pancetta is the Italian cousin of bacon, made by curing pork belly with salt and aromatics, but not smoked. I considered the traditional dry cure route (Michael Ruhlman's cookbook is a wealth of information on making cured meats). But it's something I haven't dabbled in before. You can Cook Home Made Pancetta using 8 ingredients and 10 steps. Here is how you cook it.

Ingredients of Home Made Pancetta

It's 5 of salt.
It's of black pepper.
Lets Go Prepare 1 of juniper berries.
What You needis 1 of fresh thyme.
It's of ground nutmeg.
Lets Go Prepare 5 of bay leaf.
Lets Go Prepare 1 of brown sugar.
It's 1 of pork belly.

Moreover, pancetta is infused with bold flavors from the black pepper, dried herbs, and spices added to the curing mixture. For a beginner in the world of home curing, pancetta was the ideal choice. As far as curing went, the method was pretty basic and didn't require much hands-on time. A delicious pasta dish that takes so little time to make.

Home Made Pancetta step by step

Take the pork belly and cut the skin off if it is still on.
Salt is important in this cured meat. You need 5% salt to weight ratio. Weigh your meat and calculate how much salt you will need for that weight..
Lightly bruise the juniper berries in a mortar and pestle with the black pepper and thyme. Add all dry ingredients to create a dry rub..
Use a plastic bag or tupperware to cure this meat in the dry rub. Add equal parts of rub on both sides. Do not use a metal container as it does have acidic properties when reacting to meat..
Let this mixture cure over time. For every 500 grams of meat you will let it cure for 3 days. If your meat is 2687 grams you will be waiting quite a while..
After it has cured, you will need to wash the excess spices it cured in off. At this point you may reseason with the same spice mixture..
Dry off the meat. You will now take your meat and roll it tight and secure it in butcher's twine. Tie it as tight possible so it maintains the rolled shape. You can wrap this in cheese cloth to ensure it has a protective barrier but I don't do this..
This meat will hang in your refrigerator for three weeks to allow the enzymes to metabolize. Make sure to hang it length wise and not side ways. Temperature should not be 60 degrees to 71 degrees Fahrenheit if you decide to hang it in your basement in the winter..
After three weeks you can now eat this. If you did it right you will see white mold on the outside area. This mold is good and has protected your meat. If you have black or green mold that is dripping liquid you have contaminated your meat by not letting it sit in the right temperature..
Slice it thin and serve or use it as bacon to add to pastas and several other dishes..

Using Italian bacon (pancetta) gives it a unique flavour and texture. Increase quantities to taste and it will serve as many as you like. Come back for my blog next month, and I will show you some recipes highlighting pancetta, including the classic Carbonara pasta! Pancetta is usually rolled and tied in a cylindrical shape, then hung to dry. Some versions, such as the variety made in Florence, are left flat.