ksea

I'm turning to my friends on the board hoping someone can answer a question for me. I have a recipe for Pancetta and Turkey Meatloaf (it is to die for) but absolutely no one in my city carries pancetta any more. I spent 5 hours this morning running all over town to every suppermarket, grocercy store and meat market in my town. No one carries it any longer. I can find prosciutto which I know is no where near the same thing but not pancetta. One of the butchers that I talked with said that I could substitute Capocollo for pancetta. Please Can someone tell me if this is correct information. The pancetta is used to wrap the meatloaf in and then it is wrapped in parchment paper and baked. The pancetta flavors the whole mealoaf plus it has fat in it to keep it moist. Is the capocollo going to do the same thing? Any help would be appreciated!!

fabrichore

well I am not italian, but pancetta is nothing more than bacon that has not been smoked, I find it hard to believe no one carries it, but cappicola is not bacon it is a ham, could you substitute a lower sodiom bacon? hope this helps

magpie

I know this won't help but here's a recipe to make your own. time consuming though.
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10699-chow-pancetta

fabrichore

just did a search for you to replace pancetta with, they say you can use either bacon or "fatty prosciutto or prosciutto ends....

ksea

Thank you for the replies, the prociutto I bought looks pretty lean but maybe I will try it, but not on the guests that are coming tonight. I put bbq ribs in

AmyBaby

you can always mail order when you plan ahead. http://www.salumicuredmeats.com/ Salumi is Mario Batali's family store - great place.

ksea

Thank you AmyBaby I love to watch Mario on Iron Chef. I checked out the sight and it is only $15. a lb that is awesome, and it is a cured meat so it will last for a long time. I think I will send out an order.

earthwalker

I am married to a Sicilian...so he would kill me if I recommended bacon. I would go with the fattiest prosciutto you can find. I have frozen pancetta with some success, so if you can get some via mail order you will then always have some on hand.

luckylindy333

We are lucky enough that our local store carries Salumi meats. They are really, really good!

QuiltMania

Have you tried an international grocery store? I think there is an Italian store (GB Russo's?) in Grand Rapids. If you can't find it there, you could use capicola. It wouldn't be the exact same flavor but it would be interesting. Just make sure to get the sweet and not the spicy.