I confess that I really don’t miss too much American food, and I was never much of a sandwich eater, but I recently NEEDED to eat a BLT, but obviously it was going to have be Italian style, so we created the Pancetta Insalata Pomodori!
Here’s the recipe, but you’re on your own deciding if it’s worth it. We had everything around so it was no big deal, but you do have to stop and wonder and pay respect to what it took to get our sandwiches to the table.
1) Bake the bread. That’s the easy part, I usually bake a batch once a week, freeze it and we’re all set.
2) Find some willing chickens. You need an egg to make the mayonnaise. What? You thought I was going to buy mayonnaise? Our friend Bruce has some lovely chickens that lay great eggs, the kind with very dark orange yokes. Yeah, that orange stuff on the bread is actually the mayo made from these eggs.
3) Grow and harvest a good tomato.
4) While you are out getting the tomato, pick some lettuce.
5) Fry up the pancetta. I did not raise the pig, know the pig or have anything more to do with the pancetta other than buy it. What can I say? Maybe next year we’ll convert the guest room to a pigpen.
6) Slice, fry, assemble, eat.
