Culinary Experts Explain the Difference

There’s nothing quite like crispy, smoky bacon with breakfast or on a BLT. It’s an ingredient that’s famously paired with pancakes, eggs, and salads, but also makes its way into desserts like cookies and brownies. Meanwhile, bacon’s Italian cousin, pancetta, offers its own distinct flavor and culinary appeal. Rich and delicate, pancetta has a less assertive personality, but it’s a winning component in dishes such as bolognese sauce, minestrone soup, and sautéed spring peas. While both ingredients are essentially cured pork belly, pancetta is cured with salt and a combination of spices and herbs, and bacon is typically cured just with salt before being smoked. 

To learn more about these pork powerhouses, I checked in with two experts who offered culinary insights on the unique qualities of each:Diego Puddu, Director of Culinary Operations at Eataly North America, and Fabio Parasecoli, Professor of Food Studies at New York University. Both Parasecoli and Puddu are big fans of bacon for breakfast and love its smokiness alongside meats and eggs. Meanwhile, they underscored the versatility of pancetta—which Puddo calls “both elegant and fatty at the same time”—in Italian cuisine and beyond. Let’s dig deeper into these two fatty favorites and how to utilize each to their best culinary advantage. 

Bacon Basics

Coming from the belly of the pig—a cut famous for its high fat content, and remember, fat carries flavor—bacon is all about big smoky flavor. You can find it in various versions: cured with salt, cured with synthetic nitrates, and even uncured. American-style bacon is sometimes called “streaky bacon,” and it’s typically smoked—often over applewood or hickory—which imparts the wood’s distinct flavor on the meat. Bacon’s versatility extends to its cut and uses: It can be cut thick or thinly sliced and eaten by the piece or as a component in countless dishes.

Bacon Curing and Smoking

The process of curing bacon involves salting the meat anywhere from six hours to two weeks, then usually smoking it, which preserves the meat and enhances its flavor. Most bacon in the US is smoked, while unsmoked bacon is more common in Ireland and the UK. The smoking process typically occurs after curing and is either cold smoking, in which the meat is exposed to smoke without heat, or hot smoking, which cooks the meat while it smokes. This dual process of curing and smoking is what gives bacon its iconic savory, smoky flavor. 

Cooking Bacon

There’s nothing quite like bacon fried to golden, crispy perfection on the stovetop, but the oven also works well. Using the oven to cook bacon lets you make it in bigger batches with less mess, and without the need for constant attention. Lay the bacon strips on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil and start them in a cold oven, allowing it to heat up to 400°F (205°C). This allows the bacon to start slowly tenderizing without needing to wait for the oven to heat up all the way. By the time the oven reaches its temperature, the bacon will be about halfway cooked, and you can continue cooking it until you reach an ideal color and crunch (typically 15-25 minutes in total, depending on the thickness of the slices). Grilling bacon is another great option, adding even more smoky flavor plus convenience when cooking other parts of a meal on the grill. 

Uses for Bacon

Bacon’s culinary potential goes way beyond breakfast. Its smoky, salty, fatty, and crunchy profile has given it an extremely ardent following, allowing it to shine in dishes as diverse as quiches, pastas, soups, and even desserts–we’ve seen it folded into chocolate bars and sprinkled on sundaes.

Roasted Vegetables

Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Bacon

cook time:


45 mins

serves:


4
to 6

When chopped, bacon is an integral component in salads like Cobb and the classic wedge salad. In roasted, braised, and sautéed side dishes, it enhances the sweetness of vegetables such as Brussels sprouts and collard greens. It can also take center stage on burgers or sandwiches (like this  Caesar BLT), where bacon’s savory richness complements meat and/or the fresh crunch of raw vegetables. Even though bacon doesn’t often make its way into Italian dishes, Parasecoli recalls an Italian pasta dish that was popular in the 1980s as a good opportunity for a swap. That dish is a “classic combo of prosciutto, peas, and tortellini with cream. I think it would be really good if you use bacon in place of prosciutto,” suggests Parasecoli. Bacon would “bring a certain smokiness in with the cream, and if you like mushrooms, they could be nice in place of the peas.”

Pancetta Basics and Curing

The term “pancetta” comes from pancia, the Italian word for “belly.” Pancetta’s curing process involves seasoning the pork with a generous amount of salt and a spice mixture that often includes some combination of black pepper, nutmeg, juniper, allspice, fennel, and garlic. This not only preserves the meat but also infuses it with flavor. Cured pancetta is often rolled tightly—which is the most popular type found in the US—creating a cylinder that can be sliced into beautiful, paper-thin rounds or thicker ones for dicing and cooking. It can also be cured flat, which is more common in central and southern Italy. Pancetta takes several weeks to cure—much longer than bacon—and it’s also a bit pricier to buy at the store. Unlike bacon, pancetta is not usually smoked, allowing the flavors of the pork and the spices to shine through.

Pancetta’s Flavor

The combination of fat, salt, and spices used in the curing process gives pancetta its characteristic flavor, which can vary based on the specific recipe used and the region it hails from, but almost always includes black pepper. Its rich, savory taste can be slightly sweet.

Using Pancetta

Pancetta can elevate a wide range of dishes and its tender texture means it melts wonderfully into cooked dishes. While it’s sometimes used in pasta alla carbonara, the authentic Roman dish actually calls for guanciale, which is pork jowl. Puddu adds that pancetta “goes very well in pasta dishes like pasta con fava e pancetta (pasta with fava beans and pancetta), and in winter soups and stews.” Diced pancetta can be sautéed to render its fat, creating a flavorful base for side dishes and sauces, too. Italians also sometimes include it—raw and sliced paper thin—on charcuterie boards. 

“Pancetta can be delicious cut into cubes and sautéed with peas and vegetables,” Parasecoli notes. He also mentions that “pancetta shines in vegetable dishes such as asparagus wrapped in pancetta and roasted until crispy. This combination offers a nice balance of flavors and textures,” turning a humble vegetable into a showstopper. 

Eggs
Quiche Lorraine

cook time:


4 hrs 45 mins

serves:


6
to 8

If you’re wondering about non-Italian uses for pancetta, Parasecoli suggests including it in “a delicate asparagus quiche, where the flavors would come together beautifully.” And don’t forget that charcuterie board! Both Puddu and Parasecoli mention it. You won’t go wrong with the nice sweet-and-salty contrast of pancetta wrapped around dates, per Parasecoli, or Puddu’s suggestion of a simple classic—pancetta sliced paper thin and served with good focaccia.

Pancetta vs. Bacon: Unpacking the Differences

Even though pancetta and bacon both begin as pork belly, their flavor profiles and uses set them apart. 

Bacon: Bold and smoky, bacon delivers a robust flavor that can dominate a dish. It’s typically enjoyed crispy. The smoky undertones add an extra layer of flavor that makes it a favorite. 

Pancetta: Rich, savory, and delicately sweet, pancetta has a tender texture that melts into dishes, offering a more nuanced flavor. It’s sometimes described as the more refined cousin of bacon, providing depth without smokiness. And, as noted above, while bacon is never served raw, pancetta sometimes is.

Can You Substitute Bacon for Pancetta, and Vice Versa?

Although bacon and pancetta can sometimes be swapped in recipes, it’s essential to consider the dish’s intended flavor profile. For example, use pancetta in delicate dishes where its subtlety can shine. In contrast, bacon has a big personality, which makes it ideal for dishes with other bold flavors, such as atop a burger or alongside pancakes and eggs. All of that being said, Puddu points out that “there’s never a single way to combine ingredients.” He notes that even “in a rustic breakfast dish like uova patate e pancetta (eggs potatoes and pancetta), we can definitely say that pancetta could also be replaced by bacon. Every food lover adapts based on their own palate and ideas.”

How to Shop for and Store Pancetta and Bacon

At most grocery stores, packaged, pre-sliced, or pre-diced pancetta is typically available refrigerated in the deli aisle or near the packaged bacon. Stores with robust deli departments may also sell pancetta sliced to order, and you may also be able to find it at your local butcher. Pancetta should always be refrigerated in plastic wrap or a sealed container.

In addition to a dizzying variety of refrigerated bacon options that most grocery stores carry, there are also many packaged, fully-cooked choices as well. If purchasing bacon at a butcher, you should be able to get it sliced to your preferred thickness. Whether you buy bacon refrigerated or pre-cooked and shelf-stable, it always needs to be refrigerated once the package is open and sealed tightly in a reusable container or zip-topbag.

The Takeaway

If you’re looking to add a punch of smoky, fatty, porky deliciousness to a dish, bacon is the answer. This iconic pork belly masterpiece can harmonize well with other ingredients, and it has a distinct smoky personality that will always shine through in the best possible way. Its bold flavor can complement, enhance, or add wow factor to breakfast, hors d’oeuvres, and desserts.

Pancetta, on the other hand, delivers meaty, fatty, porcine goodness, minus the smoke. It’s a staple Italian salumi that’s subtler than bacon. Cook diced pancetta into sauces, stews, and soups for its richness, and crumble it onto almost any dish as a crispy garnish. Pancetta also has a trick up its sleeve that bacon doesn’t–you can enjoy it raw. Add paper thin slices to your next charcuterie board or drape some on pizza. Versatility is one of pancetta’s superpowers.