FFwD Pancetta Green Beans

I have never loved green beans more in my life than I did with this recipe. I made them with the FFwD tortilla on 2/4/11, but I think this dish would be great with anything!

I will always be thankful to this recipe for introducing me to a love at first bite, cooked pancetta.

I purchased Volpi pancetta. Volpi is a local Italian meat manufacturer; their headquarters is in my neighborhood. According to their website, they are America’s oldest manufacturer of hand-crafted Italian meats. I’ve never had something from Volpi that I didn’t love. Since I was buying pancetta, a cut of meat I’d never purchased before, I knew that whatever was in the Volpi package would be a quality product. If they’re in your supermarket I’d recommend trying them out sometime.

The green beans were lightly cooked, then chilled to stop the cooking.

I cut the pancetta into smaller pieces with kitchen shears before tossing them into the skillet. The pancetta fried up so light and crisp. It was so fragrant when cooking, it made me want to sit down and eat the entire skillet right then forgetting about the green beans. I had very little fat to drain off when done cooking. There was the 1 tablespoon Dorie said to retain, and then I drained out maybe 1 teaspoon.

I had started out with a 4 ounce package, so I put half in with the green beans, and the other half in the tortilla. The green beans cooked up wonderfully, and I don’t think the butter was even needed; the pancetta grease would’ve done the trick.

Before serving I put the pancetta green beans on a paper towel to catch a little of the fat and grease. I loved the finished green beans!

I also cooked up some pancetta for breakfast on Valentine's day, because we loved this in our house!

Be sure to visit the other bloggers at French Fridays with Dorie!