Bacon Alternative For Linguine With Garlic Oil And Pancetta

Our answer

Nigella's Linguine With Garlic Oil And Pancetta (from NIGELLA BITES) is a pasta dish where the sauce can be cooked in the time it takes to heat water and cook the linguine. It uses a whole piece of pancetta with the rind on. The fat from the rind is rendered out and used to cook the diced pancetta.

Traditionally pancetta is salt-cured and dried but not smoked. So a slab of unsmoked bacon would be the closest equivalent. However, it can be adjusted for personal taste and if you prefer you can use smoked bacon instead. If you are using lardons or allumettes de bacon then these do not have the rind on so we would maybe suggest using 225g of these and adding 1 tablespoon of regular olive oil, as well as using the garlic-infused olive oil.