I’m really going out on a limb here with this one — the name that is. My understand of spanish tells me that it should be correct, but at any rate, here we go: the panino di pancetta, or pancetta sandwich.
Some might harken this to a BLT gone international, and they’d be right. Pancetta, a delicious Italian spin on bacon, popped up amongst the cheeses one day at the grocer and I just couldn’t resist. But what to do with it at lunch time? Well, I poked around the deli area a bit and this what I came up with.
Ingredients
- 8-12oz Pancetta
- 2 Garlic cheese breads (from the deli, sandwich size)
- 1 tomato
- 1 medium sweet onion
- 4 slices muenster cheese
- 1 bottle salad dressing
- Olive oil
- Basil, pepper
Prepare and cook
- Slice your onion into rings and sautée in a bit of olive oil over medium heat. I always enjoy a little basil and fresh cracked pepper on almost anything sautéed, but especially onions. Once the onions begin to caramelize, add a little more olive oil and toss in the minced garlic. Sautée for about 30-45 seconds, being careful not to burn the garlic. Remove from heat and cover. This will normally take longer than cooking the pancetta, so get it started first.
- Once you get the onions going, in a frying pan, cook the pancetta just like you would bacon. Be careful, though, because it probably wont need as much time since it’s thinner than the typical bacon. Set the cooked aside pieces on a couple paper towels to absorb some of the grease, and cover with a pan lid to keep warm.
- That’s basically it, at least the cooking part. I like my buns toasted, so feel free to throw those bad boys into an oversized toaster or toaster oven and burn them down to your little hearts content while you slice your tomato (just enough for each sandwich).
- So we’re not going to be using the typical sandwich spread here. No mayo or mustard; that’d be much too predictable. You can use any type of dressing that you’d like, but something along the lines of an Italian or some sort of creamy vinaigrette is what I would go with, although I would suggest against something like heavy like russian or thousand islands. I used Briannas Rich Santa Fe Blend. Not as peppery as hoped for, but it did the trick. Using a brush, spread the dressing on each side of the bread. Be careful here, as it goes farther than you think. The last thing you want to end up with is a sandwich that’s wetter than a salad.
- Assemble! A slice of a cheese on each side, followed by a slice or two of tomato. Then, pile on the pancetta. Typically about 8 small round slices makes for a fine serving.
Serve
Goes along nicely with some grapes and brie, or (if you feel like being ostensibly american) potato chips and beer.
Additions
I went back and made this again the next day for the rest of the crew. Here’s what I added:
- A red and green bell pepper and sautéed them with the onions.
- If you got lettuce, you can throw that on there too. Never hurts.
As a side note, make sure not to use a large piece of bread like sourdough or shepherds bread. They’re just too big and require a boat-load of pancetta to cover with any satisfaction. The bread that I used was about 4”x4” and worked perfectly. This may also do well in small rolls (dinner, french, etc).
Everyone seemed to like this one (and with no bones to pick). It’s a quick and easy recipe that I hope everyone will enjoy.
Pictures will follow shortly. There on my (dead) phone.