Pancetta Will Do

Dreaming of mushroom-bacon burgers but no bacon in the house? I can hear you gasp with dismay but that was my dilemma. I had a pound of nice, grass-raised burger from Prather Ranch and some big, meaty mushrooms but no bacon, not even in the freezer.

I did have a very small amount of pancetta that I bought to try with raclette - inspiration! I lightly fried the wafer-thin pancetta in a wide frying pan, sautéed the mushrooms in the same pan, pushed all that to one side and added the burger patties to the slurry of flavors in the pan until the top and bottom were richly caramelized and delicious. Pancetta isn't smoked, so you get the porkiness and the saltiness without the smokiness. I guess I still prefer bacon, but pancetta will do.