Not Bacon, Not Beef — Fry Cabbage With Better Flavor By Adding This Italian Deli Meat

It seems like the veggies with the worst, often childhood-derived reputations turn out to be the tastiest, once you learn to play to their strengths. The sad, boiled Brussels sprouts of yore truly blossom when they're properly roasted. Limp, steamed broccoli likewise comes alive when it's grilled, and there are oodles of ways to transform cabbage from disaster dish to deliciousness with minimal effort — you might have even tried some for yourself. If pancetta hasn't yet made it to your cabbage preparation though, then you're in for an exciting new, salty, savory, leafy treat.

Adding this Italian pork product is an easy adaptation if you're already used to tossing cabbage with bacon, which shares more similarities with pancetta than other alternatives. Most importantly, they're both pork belly cuts, so each is replete with flavorful fat to dress up what can otherwise be pretty bland cabbage. However, while bacon is smoked, pancetta is not. It's terrific for enhancing crisp cabbage, and also for bringing out cabbage's subtle sweetness thanks to its sugar-enhancing salinity — all without the cloak of smoke. Bacon is also great, as is beef or plenty of popular sausages, but pancetta-inflected cabbage just brings something a little different to the table to help you appreciate cabbage in a whole new way.

Start by shredding the whole head of cabbage, then rinse the bits in a colander. Be sure to pat dry, or salad-spin it all, before it hits the pan to prevent steaming. Once you have a moisture-free pile of cabbage confetti, get your pancetta cooking. The ivory-hued ribbons of fat that swirl throughout the pink pork render to function as your cooking oil, so roughly chop a few slices and saute over medium heat — without anything extra, such as olive oil — to get it nice and slick.

Add any aromatics, appropriately accounting for their cook times (a little earlier to let onions soften, much later to prevent garlic from burning). Season with ground black pepper, and any other preferred spices to taste, recalling pancetta's notable saltiness before you break out the shaker. Once you introduce the cabbage and your preferred cooking liquid, such as a splash of stock or broth, to soften the roughage and help keep it from sticking to the pan, it all finishes in about 10 minutes.