What’s The Difference Between Pancetta and Prosciutto? Here’s What to Know About These Italian Meats

Byamazingfoodstv


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Pancetta and prosciutto are often confused, since both are traditional Italian cured pork products that taste deeply savory and salty. That said, they come from different parts of the pig, the processes to make them are different, and we use them in different ways. Here’s how to keep them straight.

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Pancetta
What it is: Pancetta is seasoned salt-cured pork belly (just like bacon but not smoked) that’s rolled and often put in a casing before being hung to dry to develop firm texture and deep flavor. It must be cooked before eating.

Forms: It can be sliced to order behind the deli counter or bought presliced in packages. (It also comes prediced, which we don’t recommend—we’ve found that the cubes often taste sour.)

How we use it: We like to cut it into small chunks and sauté it to add savory depth as well as intensely flavorful, meaty bites to dishes from soups and stews to pastas.

Prosciutto
What it is: Prosciutto is the salt-cured hind leg of the pig (i.e., ham) that’s air-dried for months or even years, giving it a markedly dense, silky texture and a delicate, nutty flavor. Prosciutto is safe to eat without cooking.

Forms: It can be sliced to order at the deli counter or bought presliced in packages.

How we use it: We like raw slices as part of an antipasto platter or wrapped around fruit or vegetables. We also use it in cooked applications, such as saltimbocca, and we crisp it for a salad topping.

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35 Comments

  1. You DO NOT have to cook Pancetta. It's cured with salt and nitrites, which is NO DIFFERENT than Prosciutto. Thinly sliced? It's absolutely delicious with many 'Hors D’oeuvre' recipes UNCOOKED, and you're actually lessening the flavor by cooking it.
    I've been making and eating it this way for over thirty years and have never once got sick, got worms, etc.
    I'm sure you're still thinking pork is filled with Trichinosis, which isn't the case since feeding garbage to pork was banned forty years ago. (That being said, I would never eat 'under cooked' bear because bear's test positive for Trichinosis almost 100%)

  6. I came here to find out about what is in pancetta, not for you to talk to me like i am retarded.
    Everyone knows there is a difference. Anyone who even has never seen any before would on visual inspection be able to tell that they are very different hams.
    Stop being so condecending

  9. "used for different things"
    uhm not here….we just eat it lol
    and eat little portions at a time…we only want the flavor of the meat especially when we have to get a second mortgage on the house just buy a pound of it!
    Don't go to crappy stores like walmart to buy anything like it…if you want genuine flavor and quality, you have to find specialty stores and in some Giant Eagle stores near large cities sell the more-authentic brands of it

  17. +1. Pancetta is very nice (and naughty) when it's thinly sliced and eaten just like that on its own, or on a crunchy crostini or in between two slices of freshly baked bread, unless you have the king of all bread rolls, know by the name of "rosetta".

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