Name: Guanciale Toscano - 200g Freshly Sliced | Gastronomica
SKU: SQ2853745
Price: 5.35 GBP
Availability: InStock

Guanciale Toscano is a traditional Tuscan cured meat made from the pork jowl or cheeks. This speciality is a key ingredient in many classic Italian dishes, known for its rich flavour, high-fat content, and unique texture. Unlike other cured meats like pancetta or bacon, guanciale is prized for its intense flavour and luxurious mouthfeel.

Characteristics:

Texture: Guanciale Toscano has a firm yet creamy texture, owing to the high fat-to-meat ratio in the pork jowl. When cooked, the fat melts down to become silky and rich, adding depth and a velvety texture to dishes.
Flavour: The flavor of Guanciale Toscano is robust and savoury, with a pronounced porky richness. It is typically seasoned with salt, black pepper, and sometimes garlic or herbs like rosemary and thyme, which infuse the meat with aromatic flavours. The curing process intensifies these flavours, resulting in a product that is deeply savoury with a slight sweetness and a hint of spice.
Appearance: Guanciale Toscano is characterized by its marbled appearance, with thick layers of white fat interspersed with lean meat. The outer surface is often coated with a mixture of black pepper or spices, giving it a rustic, artisanal look.
Production: The production of Guanciale Toscano involves carefully selecting pork jowls, which are then seasoned with salt and spices before being air-cured for several weeks. The curing process allows the fat to develop its rich, nuanced flavours, making it an essential ingredient in many traditional Tuscan recipes.

Culinary Uses:

Pasta Dishes: Guanciale is famously used in classic Italian pasta dishes such as Carbonara, Amatriciana, and Gricia. Its rich, fatty flavour is essential to these dishes, where it is typically rendered down to create a flavourful base.
Soups and Stews: It can also be used to add depth to soups and stews, where its fat renders into the broth, enriching the overall flavour.
Salads: Thin slices of guanciale can be crisped up and added to salads, providing a rich, savoury crunch that elevates the dish.
Pizza: Guanciale Toscano makes a luxurious pizza topping, where its fat renders into the crust, adding both flavour and texture.
Wine Pairings: Due to its rich flavour, Guanciale Toscano pairs well with medium to full-bodied red wines such as Chianti, Sangiovese, or Barolo. It also goes well with sparkling wines that help cut through the fat.

Pasta alla Carbonara

The most reliable story about this first course tells of the encounter between the ingredients available to American soldiers and the imagination of a Roman cook. The result was the prototype of spaghetti alla carbonara: eggs, bacon (then bacon) and cheese. Little by little, the recipe evolved to the one we all know today and can be appreciated, in trattorias and starred restaurants throughout Italy and abroad, in the countless versions: with or without pepper, with one yolk per person or the addition of at least one whole egg, with bacon or guanciale.

To prepare the real Carbonara, rich and creamy, very few ingredients are needed. According to the original recipe, Carbonara is prepared with pasta, which can be spaghetti, rigatoni or mezze maniche (as is used in Rome), aged pecorino romano DOP, guanciale (quality) and black pepper. Carbonara purists do not compromise: only these ingredients are needed and parmesan is banned instead of pecorino, pancetta or bacon instead of guanciale or, even worse, cream or onion or garlic. Carbonara is really simple to make, but there are some small precautions to be respected, to make it in the best way.

Here is the Carbonara recipe, the original creamy carbonara!

Ingredients for 4 people:

· Pasta, Rigatoni or Mezze Maniche or Spaghetti 400g

· Guanciale 250g

· Pecorino Romano 200g

· Yellow paste egg yolk 4

· Yellow egg 1

· Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:
1. Cut the Guanciale into not too thin strips and put it in a pan. Let its fat melt slowly, turning from time to time.

2. In a separate container put the whole egg with the yolks and add the grated Pecorino. Mix well, also add a generous pinch of pepper.

3. Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water. Once well browned, remove the guanciale from the pan and add a ladle of the pasta cooking water to the egg and pecorino mixture in order to increase the temperature and make it more homogeneous. Stir a little so that you have a uniform consistency.

4. Drain the pasta al dente and transfer it to the pan with the fat from the guanciale, let it flavor for a few minutes. Remove from the heat and continue to stir vigorously to lower the temperature The pasta must be moist in order to incorporate the egg mixture in the best possible way, if necessary add a little cooking water. Now add the egg sauce and mix as for creaming, add the crispy bacon and mix again.

5. Serve, to your taste, with a little more ground pepper.

Buon Appetito!

Weight	0.2 kg
Ingredients	Pork, Salt, Dextrose, Saccharose, Natural Flavouring. Antioxidant: E300. Preservative: E250, E252.
Region	Toscana & Umbria
Categories	Cured Meat

Guanciale Toscano – 200g Freshly Sliced

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