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I live in an ethnically challenged neighborhood, and finding authentic ingredients for Italian food is is diificult and/or very very expensive. Right now I'm looking for substitutions for Pecorino cheese (can I use Parmesan?) and Pancetta (what bacon works best?). Can anyone help. An e-mail to chachaguy@earthlink.net would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Joel

.... regular 'off the shelf' bacon. Keep looking for something closer to the real thing. Down here in the swamp we can access specially cut bacons (rather thick or rather thin and some smoked) but handled differently in processing than the run-of-the-mill mass-produced stuff. We got a snowballs chance in hell of getting something 'Italian'.

Thanks for your reply. Since I posted, I actually found a store with both pecorino and pancetta, but it's nice to know I can substitute bacon for pancetta in a pinch (read: when I'm too lazy to get off my sorry butt and drive for thirty minutes).

LOL - brother, can I relate to feeling like that some days!!