Substitutions Are Your Friends: Choose Wisely

I love pancetta. I like to make it with bucatini all'amaticiana. I love to use it for simple dishes like pancetta with broccoli, ziti, and garlic. These are fast and delicious recipes that get dinner on the table in a half hour. But what if you don't eat meat, or have other dietary obligations that keep this delightful, cured Italian pork bacon off your table? This is the question that troubled me. I wanted to offer a recipe that covering the poles of these flavors- the green veggies, the crispy salty meat, and the pasta, but how best to avoid the pork? The answer came to me in a dream. A dancing cured poultry product pranced before me, beckoning me to use it as a substitution. But what had I see? Had it been chicken sausage? Or perhaps it was turkey bacon? Yes. Turkey bacon. This seemed to hold promise as a pancetta replacement.

Alas, because I was about to embark on a trip I was unable to test this hypothesis. Fortunately, my dear friend, fellow cook, Maplewood resident and CSA participant, Jocelyn Ruggiero, aka Foodie Fatale, was intrigued enough to make a version herself and to offer both her assessment and preparation of the dish. Thanks, again, Joce!

-Clyde Tressler

Ingredients:

• 5 or 6 pieces of Applegate Farms turkey bacon, chopped into small cubes
• 3 or 4 scapes, chopped into small pieces (approx ½ inch)
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 a head of green garlic, minced
• handful of sun dried tomatoes
• 1 head of kale, stems removed
• extra-virgin olive oil
• 8-10 ounces whole wheat pasta (ziti, rigatoni or similar)
  

Preparation:

• Pan fry bacon until crispy, then remove and set aside.
• Saute onions and scapes in olive oil until onions are translucent and scapes are wilted
• Add chopped kale
• Drizzle a little more olive oil over kale, cover frying pan and cook over low heat.
• After approximately 5 minutes add reserved bacon and pepper/kosher salt to taste
• Continue to cook kale until tender, approximately 5 more minutes. Once the kale is cooked, I like to turn the heat off, and keep the pan covered for a few minutes.
• Toss with 8-10 ounces of whole wheat pasta, sprinkle with Parmesan and serve!