Panozzo's has guanciale!

La Querica guanciale. Made from heirloom pigs in Iowa. Soft porky chesnutty flavor. To my tongue, much better --richer and rounder tasting-- than the stuff I got a while back from Fox and Obel.

Panozzo's Italian Market
1303 South Michigan
Chicago

I made some delicious bucatini with La Quercia guanciale from Panozzo's today. It was $6.50 for half a pound, which seems reasonable. A quarter pound rendered down is just right for a pound can of imported tomatoes (which they also have in three varieties for $3 a can, though I find Muir Glen from Whole Foods does the trick for $1.50).

It was $6.50 for half a pound, which seems reasonable.

Unless you make your own for about $2 a pound...

I recently purchased guanciale from Heritage Foods. It was 6 pounds of fatty goodness, but I portioned it up and put most in the freezer. It will also last up to 6 months in the refrigerator. Their guanciale is from Salumeria Belliese - an old, well-respected family-run salumeria in New York City. It is naturally fermented and all-natural (as all products from Heritage). All of their products include shipping, so $65 adds up to $11 or so a pound. Not bad. The resulting carbonara was good, but I especially liked the Amatriciana sauce.

I am glad to hear about the local source - do you know if Panozzo's also carry Braesola?

Yes they do!

The La Quercia pancetta they have there is excellent as well. It's the unrolled kind, where it doesn't come in a round, but rather shaped like a slab of bacon. I bought a bunch to use in a bacon-wrapped pork roast recipe. It turned out quite well.

We used the remainder to make BLTs. I think we might have had them slice it too thin (the fat was almost clear when it started cooking), but it was quite tasty.

I'm trying the guanciale next time.

stacy lunardini wrote:I recently purchased guanciale from Heritage Foods.

My six pounds arrived this afternoon, and I just made the best Amatriciana of my life. It's a really light cure. On first glance, I thought there'd been some mistake and they'd sent me the raw meat. I'm thinking about leaving one in the fridge to keep it very fresh tasting, and hanging the other in the basement for a week or two to let it intensify a little bit.

You guys don't think there's any need to resalt it if I do so, do you? The Heritage Foods site even says it keeps at room temperature for a few weeks. I'm figuring I can hang it for a week and stick it back in the fridge. Think I'm asking for trouble?