Pancetta, it’s the bourgie’s bacon! I mean, who doesn’t love a little bit of pork product in their food? But pancetta, for all of its meaty saltiness, its crunchy crispness, and its artery-clogging goodness, can be a little too much on its own. It’s wonderful as a starter for soups, or crisply fried into lardons and sprinkled on a salad, and then there is my new favorite– crumbled on top of a heaping stack of pancakes.

This combination has the salty-sweet taste I so often find myself pining for. The bland neutrality of the pancake, the salty grease from the pancetta, and the tender sweetness from the pure maple syrup, is the ideal combination. I love bacon, but for this flavor combination I’m looking for the unsmoked taste that can only come from pancetta. Fried crisp, it is almost peppery in its composition. Crackling between my teeth as I consume the perfect bite, an ideal edge of a pancake, topped with a small pancetta tear, and the sweet maple flavor dripping off the fork.

For this week’s consumption I made a batch of corn pancakes. Utilizing the fresh corn that is creeping its way into markets (and thus into my tummy), the kernels bursting with a gentle sweetness, they are the perfect combination of texture and taste. The gentle give of the corn kernel between my teeth, in conjunction with the chewy flours (I used corn and all-purpose), creates a delicate to-and-fro between devouring hungrily, and savoring each bite.

But don’t get too hung up on having corn pancakes, as wonderful as they might be. Just try the pancetta, sliced thinly and fried crisply, on just about anything. Although it may make your meal slightly greasier, I guarantee it will also make it infinitely more pleasurable.