Pancetta is a very flavourful cured meat made from pork belly. It is often used as a substitute for guanciale in pasta dishes but is also a staple itself.
A block of pancetta is a very hard meat to find in your local supermarket. You might be able to find it cubed if you’re lucky. So, what substitutes are easy to buy and easier to find?
Our 5 Substitutes for Pancetta
It is the high-fat content and saltiness of pancetta that sets it apart from other cured meats. But some other options work just as well in a dish. Here are our top 5:
1) Prosciutto
Prosciutto is dry-cured meat made using the hind leg of a pig, so has some fatty quality like pancetta.
It also is not smoked when dried but is salted and seasoned in a similar way to pancetta.
The main difference is that prosciutto is air-dried for months so can be eaten raw. Prosciutto is cut very thinly, giving it a crispy texture when lightly cooked.
Serve Prosciutto on a Platter
Prosciutto is the perfect platter meat. It pairs well with a range of fresh fruits and cheeses. Wrap the prosciutto around a choice of food and serve to eager guests. It is a much cheaper cured meat and will be a hit every time.
2) Bacon
Though most bacon is smoked which takes away from one of the main characteristics of pancetta, it is still a great budget alternative.
Pancetta is often called Italian bacon as they both use pork belly meat and have a high-fat content. Bacon provides a similar texture to pancetta when cooked and used in dishes.
Some of this fat content is lost when cooked but not a lot.
Bacon is seasoned differently from pancetta and has a different curing method.
Coming from the same cut of pig, it still holds many of the same qualities as pancetta and will work well in any pancetta-required recipe for half the price.
Boil Bacon to Remove Smokiness
Unsmoked bacon will still have a distinctly smoky taste when compared to pancetta. However, if you boil bacon for a maximum of 3 minutes in unseasoned water then some of that smokiness gets removed.
Let the bacon dry off a little before you cook it but once you use it in a dish, it will taste much more like pancetta.
3) Salami
In terms of flavour, salami is the substitute that most closely matches pancetta.
Salami is an air-dried, fermented pork sausage. You can also buy salami that has a pork filling mixed with other meats such as beef or other cuts of pork.
No matter what filling salami uses, it is seasoned the same as pancetta and tends to be cured the same way too. It also lacks a smoky flavour.
Fry Salami for the Ultimate Topping
To make salami the best finisher for your dish, don’t overcomplicate it. Salami is already full of flavour so all you need to do is fry it off in a little bit of olive oil until slightly crispy. Then chop it up ready to serve.
4) Full Flavour Olives
Olives are already a staple Italian food, but olives act as the perfect vegetarian alternative to pancetta.
They offer the tough meatiness that pancetta does but because of the lack of meat, you will not get a pork flavour from them. Though do not let that deter you!
Full flavour olives are, well… Full of flavour. They are very salty, matching the seasoning of pancetta. They are bursting full of flavour much like pancetta, they simply lack the specific pork flavouring.
Many recipes use pancetta because of its high-fat content.
Olives offer that same level of fat but way healthier. The fat in olives contains 10-15% of monounsaturated fat which is the healthy kind, so you can still treat yourself while being healthy.
Don’t Overpower Your Dish
If used in moderation, the flavour will not overwhelm your dish. Start with one green olive for every piece of pancetta that is required. Then you can adjust your olive count based on your personal preference.
5) Plain Gammon
Pancetta is, at its core, unsmoked pork meat. If you are unable to find an Italian meat seller, then there is no shame in using regular unsmoked ham instead.
Gammon is usually sold as unfavoured slabs of meat and is cheaper.
Make Unsmoked Ham Tastier
Buying plain ham means that you get to control how salty and seasoned your pancetta substitute turns out. Try coating the ham in garlic, salt, brown sugar, juniper berries, bay leaves, nutmeg, black pepper, and thyme.
Other Substitutes for Pancetta
Perhaps you have other dietary needs that the above substitutes don’t cover. Don’t worry! There are other pancetta alternatives out that there that work just as well.
- Beef Bacon – The perfect kosher or halal option, beef bacon is the same as bacon just made from beef.
- Porcini Mushroom – Porcini mushroom are a general pork substitute for vegans. Add the same herbs and spices that you would normally cook with the pancetta to achieve the same flavor.
- Tofu – Salty and versatile, tofu is essentially a blank slate ingredient and can be melded into good pancetta.
Summary
Pancetta’s unique saltiness is what makes it such a great cured meat, but it can be hard to find to buy in some supermarkets.
Other cured meats are treated the same as pancetta. Especially prosciutto which matches pancetta in nearly every characteristic. There are other options out there that can be seasoned to taste like pancetta too.