FRENCH FRIDAY WITH DORIE: PANCETTA GREEN BEANS

Pancetta Green Beans

Dorie Greenspan wrote, “This simple dish is made special with the addition of a little sauteed pancetta.  It adds a speck of saltiness, another texture, and elements of elegance and surprise.”

With that in mind I went shopping.  It was my day to have almost 1 year old Honey for a few hours; I get to keep her every Wednesday, and since she loves to shop, eat, and talk to me while I cook, it is fun for her to be with me in the kitchen...maybe she senses that I am happy in the kitchen too.

I read through the recipe and also learned about pancetta on the internet.  It is similar to a slab of uncut bacon, but is cured with different spices or herbs and it is typically dried.  I remember using it in our Italian dishes and in ways similar to this recipe when we lived in New York, but did not remember seeing pancetta here.

I was reminded of living in Syracuse, NY for 8 years,  and dying for a good taco.  I know things have changed a little since we moved from there 23 years ago, but real Mexican foods and even good ingredients for home cooking did not exist in Syracuse at that time.

At one point, I was so excited to discover a highly recommended fast food taco/Mexican food restaurant.  (Supposedly it was like Taco Time or Del Taco or Taco Bell here...YUM, well, personally I like them all better than McDonalds....I know, it’s still fast food.)

We planned a family lunch outing, went to get our tacos, and I remember the order taker asking if I wanted mild, medium, or hot sauce.  Well, I love hot sauce.  I am a western USA girl and had grown up on Mexican cuisine.  But the man talked me out of hot, saying it was really too hot and overpowered all the other good flavors; medium would be hot enough and so I followed his recommendation.

We got our order, sat down in our booth to eat,  and I was drooling.  I do make great homemade Mexican foods, but it is just a treat to go out for a lot of crunchy tacos.  Well, immediate disappointment to the max!  First, the medium sauce had no kick, and how could it?  It was not salsa, not hot sauce, not anything Mexican at all...it was Italian spaghetti sauce poured over my tacos...GROSS!!!  And the meat was seasoned with Italian herbs.  And the cooks were not Mexicans but were Italians.  What did I expect?  We were in an Italian neighborhood.  They loved their version of tacos, but they were not tacos!  And they had the wrong kind of cheese.  The whole restaurant was wrong!

It is the opposite here.  There is a plethora of great Mexican foods, eateries, and ingredients...one could eat Mexican foods everyday for a year and never have the same dish twice.  So much to choose from and so good.  But, when we moved here, we searched hard to find a good pizza.  Finally, we have 2 great pizzerias close to home where we can eat exceptional pizza and other Italian foods, and there are a few other stellar Italian restaurants that have entered the Phoenix Valley.   But...there are no close by Italian markets.  I asked my local favorite pizza guys where they get their good stuff...they ship it in from New York City or from Italy...they can’t find it here either.

But I went out to try.  Pancetta.  Well, Sams club is only 1.5 miles from home so Honey and I tried there first.  The recently remodeled store  has brought in exceptional cheeses from around the world, and has added a great deli selection with wonderful meats and other items.  It was worth a try.  But, no, they do not have it.  They have a few other Italian specialty meats, but not pancetta.  I purchased 2 pounds of fresh green beans from their cooler, shipped in from somewhere in the southern hemisphere  where they are  growing gardens while we still have winter, and we continued our pancetta hunt.  I drove to a couple of specialty, high end food stores, and, no, pancetta was not there...it could be special ordered, but was not in stock.

What to do?  We purchased some expensive, good quality bacon...not the same, but we wanted to cook, and it would just have to do.  But we will be on the lookout for pancetta and will re-cook this recipe when we make our find.  We just might have to place a special order...or maybe I can find it on the internet...I’m finding lots of interesting ingredients there, and after entering my credit card number,  they just appear magically at my door in about a week...nice! I’ll talk to my Frolicking Night Owl daughter and see what she finds?  Maybe she will have better luck.

Honey Tasted Everything!  And Wore Some Of  It Too.

The beans do not make a meal, so Honey talked to me and tasted everything while we roasted chicken, made a fresh salad, tore off a pieces of fresh baguette bread, and sliced our favorite chocolate cake.  I told everyone who stopped by for our tasty meal that the beans were the center attraction and that our dinner was built around the beans.  They were a hit!

We had finely chopped and sauteed our bacon, blanched and chilled the beans, drained the fat from the bacon, sauteed the beans in a little butter, added the crispy bacon and seasoned the dish...and there it was; Pancetta Green Beans.  (And we added, just for fun, some of the spices to our sauteeing bacon that would be normally found in pancetta such as nutmeg,) And Dorie was correct.  The beans were special.  They had great flavor, texture, and they were definitely elegant.  Everyone wanted another helping.

I had to move in fast to get a photo before all the beans were eaten...only a small amount remained for my photo.  And that is good...glad everyone enjoyed them.  And with Valentine’s desserts and candies still in the house, it was a great idea to make a healthy vegetable for this week’s cooking experience.

DINNER INCLUDED A SIDE OF PANCETTA GREEN BEANS WHICH WAS THE STAR ATTRACTION

Note: I should have read the P&Q where some of you made good suggestions of where to find pancetta...I could have gone to Trader Joe’s.  Oh well, just gives me a good excuse to make them again!