A little bit of pancetta adds a lot of flavor to a recipe. You can lay it over your roast turkey or baked chicken breast. If you’re barbequing beef tenderloin (filet mignon) sit it on top of your steak instead of wrapping it in traditional bacon. I fry pancetta in olive oil before browning a roast like in my Braised Beef with Tripolina Lunga recipe. It’s also great to fry up with onion, garlic and celery when making a soup stock.
But if you really want to O.D. on this beautiful smoky Italian bacon, I’ve got the recipe for you. This appetizer cannot be eaten without a glass of red wine. It’s T’s creation. If you like goat cheese you’ll love it. It’s delicious and simple to make. A warning though, it is very rich. You may want to have the defibrillator paddles within arms reach. Enjoy.
| Goat Cheese & Pancetta Quesadillas | |||
| Ingredients: | |||
| 200 g | pancetta, sliced | ||
| 1 tbsp | butter | ||
| 1 | white onion, sliced | ||
| 4 | large tortilla shells | ||
| (indianlife brand from Dan d Pak is great for this) | |||
| 1 | ripe avocado | ||
| 1-1/2 cups | mozzarella cheese, shredded | ||
| 1 lb | goat cheese, room temperature | ||
| sour cream | |||
| Directions: | |||
| 1 | Spread pancetta on parchment paper over a cookie sheet. | ||
| Bake at 400F until crispy. Remove & set side. Set oven to 350F. | |||
| 2 | Melt butter in frying pan. Add onions & sauté until tender. | ||
| Remove & set aside. | |||
| 3 | Set out two tortilla shells. Peel & pit avocado. Slice & place | ||
| half on each shell. Mash with a fork and spread over entire | |||
| surface. | |||
| 4 | Sprinkle mozzarella, half over each shell. | ||
| 5 | Spread pancetta & onions, half on each shell. | ||
| 6 | Set out remaining two tortilla shells. Spread half of goat | ||
| cheese on each. Place goat cheese shells over the other | |||
| loaded shells (cheese side down). Press lightly. | |||
| 7 | Place quesadillas on cookie sheets. Wet top slightly with | ||
| water & bake 15 minutes. Flip quesadillas, wet other side & | |||
| bake 15 minutes more. | |||
| 8 | Serve with sour cream. | ||
i’m not 100% sure how i feel about the avocado, but anything that gets more pancetta into the diet gets 2 thumbs up in my book.
I agree with michelle. I’m not a huge fan of avocado. Otherwise sounds yummy.
http://www.costech.wordpress.com
Um. . . avocado is the bacon of the vegetable world, people. Could you just toast these up in a skillet with butter? Is there a particular reason why you call to bake them?
I think the baking was born out of doing multiple quesadillas at once. You could do them with a skillet, but I’d leave out the butter. They are already deadly rich as they are.