pancetta

Tonight treat loved ones to a seasonal pizza! Homemade pizza is luxurious, but also quick and simple. The key is to find a good-quality, store-bought dough and use this as the base. Trader Joe's makes my favorite pizza dough, in both regular and whole-wheat, while Whole Foods makes one that's not too shabby, either. If you can't find it at a local market, most pizzerias will let you purchase dough.

This scrumptious pie is topped with asparagus, green onions, garlic, pancetta, and basil. There's no tomato sauce, so it's not a heavy pizza. It makes a wonderful meal with a light salad. Check out my recipe — that you can totally adapt to suit your liking and what ingredients you have on hand — after the jump.

Whenever I cook an already-irresistible snack food, I'm always inclined to think about ways to make it totally over the top — like, say, with buffalo chicken macaroni and cheese. So when it came time for a friend's game day viewing, I couldn't resist combining two of my favorite foods in the entire world: potato skins and bac-o-licious pasta carbonara.

The end product is the kind of stuff dreams are made of: velvety, slightly crisp potatoes with oozy, creamy carbonara sauce. The recipe's designed to feed half a dozen or so people, but I'm pretty sure if left unattended that I could finish off the whole plate myself. For a dish that's a guaranteed crowd-pleaser this Sunday, read more.

If you're hungry for turkey, but don't want to wait till Thanksgiving to make the mouthwatering meat, serve up this simple turkey scaloppine recipe. It comes together quickly, meaning you can enjoy it as an elegant and flavorful main any time of the week. When using thinly pounded slices of boneless turkey breasts, pay attention to the heat, as you don't want to overcook the poultry. The fast pan sauce is a mixture of white wine, chicken broth, fresh sage, and chopped pancetta. A couple pats of butter add a glossy sheen to the sauce. For a complete pre-Thanksgiving meal, serve with stuffing muffins and a glass of Beaujolais. Want the recipe? Check it out after the break.

During the Spring, prosciutto-wrapped asparagus is a very popular appetizer. While I've enjoyed it many times, I recently experienced a mind-blowingly better combination of pork and plant. I'm talking about grilled pancetta-wrapped asparagus.

Most recipes for the prosciutto variation cook the asparagus in the oven or boiling water. This version throws it on the grill — which imparts a rich smoky flavor that's unattainable from roasting or blanching.

Ham-like prosciutto doesn't have to be cooked, but pancetta, which is similar to bacon (and everyone knows bacon is ten million times tastier than ham), can not be consumed raw. Thus, the resulting dish is crispy, juicy, meaty, and downright perfect. It's a serious must make, so get the recipe now!

While seafood gumbo is a classic dish native to New Orleans, to celebrate Fat Tuesday tonight, why not make another favorite with origins in the South? The traditional shrimp and grits gets a quick and modern makeover in this wonderful recipe. Instant polenta replaces the grits, and the addition of pancetta adds a porky goodness to the flavorful sauce. To kick start your Mardi Gras festivities, make this meal now.

A couple of weeks ago I read an article on the Atlantic's food blog that recommended making a grilled skewer appetizer with smoked cheese cubes wrapped in pancetta. The story reminded me of a delicious tapa I had years ago in a Spanish dive bar. Anxious to re-create the dish, I headed to the store and purchased thinly sliced pancetta and smoked mozzarella. There's really no recipe, you simply wrap a 1/2-inch cube of cheese with pancetta, skewer, and place on the grill. This is where I ran into trouble. The cheese melted before the pancetta could fully cook, sticking to the grill. I transferred the skewers to a frying pan to try and salvage them, but the cheese continued to melt, clumping together. While the final bite tasted wonderful, the technique needs some fine tuning.

Do you have any advice for getting the pancetta to cook before the cheese melts? Have you ever made cheese skewers?