Bacon and beer revisited

Ingredients
2 leeks
2 tablespoons pancetta cubes
½ cup white wine
1 pinch of lightheartedness

Sometimes, heavy clouds are weighing down the sky, immersing the whole world in grey and sucking out the color and with it, the joy. Is a thunderstorm in the air?

Those are the days when you need bacon! Blessed are those who can find true happiness in food and blessed are the foods that deliver joy in its purest form. Health-conscious as we are, nowadays the mere thought of bacon has something nearly obscene to it. Health conscious as I am, I wouldn’t recommend pure bacon to you. However, as always in life, it is all relative. Various civilizations with only limited supplies of bacon have come up with ways to integrate its flavor into dishes without actually using too much of the thing itself.



For indulgences like this, I like pancetta, but it could be replaced by speck or bacon cubes. On medium to high heat, fry the pancetta to render the fat and make the remains crispy. Today, my fridge reveals some beautiful leeks, so that’s what for dinner tonight. While the pancetta is frying and filling the kitchen with a smell so delicious and inviting that even the newspaper cannot compete for my fiance's attention, I (or should I say the Santoku?) cut the leeks into razor-thin rings and add them to the pancetta.

After 3-5 minutes of frying the leeks in the rendered fat, I pour in the white wine, as the texture I am going for here should be crusty but not burned. It promisingly sizzles when coming in contact with the hot fat, emitting another yield of delicious fragrance. Once the whine has evaporated, the crispy golden leeks are ready to carry all the flavor of the pancetta to your plate and palate. Anyone up for a cold koelsch?

Life is good!