Frittata with Potatoes, Bacon and Cheese

Bringing Home the Bacon

Bacon is like chocolate or French fries. It isn’t particularly healthy, nutritious or life sustaining, but it is irresistible, a no-excuses indulgence you eat just because you can’t not.

Among the vices is bacon’s load of fat, cholesterol and salt. Even newer reduced-fat versions aren’t exactly on a nutritionist’s yes list. The meat may contain nitrites and other additives. It also isn’t cheap anymore, as it once was. Chefs have been cooking with bacon so much lately that the market has boomed, surging prices upwards.

But let us consider bacon’s virtues. The complex flavor for one. It is at once smoky and vibrantly salty, but also subtly sweet, a toothsome contrast. The texture is crispy, almost brittle when cooked, yet bacon’s curves and bends have softer parts that stay compellingly chewy. Bacon can be a bold sidekick to a mild-mannered ingredient (a few crispy pieces in potato salad) or it can mask its power and play subtle foil to rich foods (mixed with lentils or sautéed greens as a bed for roasted chicken or salmon).

Now think of the smell! The aroma that billows from a panful of fried bacon is so mesmerizing it could have roused Rip Van Winkle from his nap.

Fortunately, when it comes to bacon, just a little goes a long way. You only need a small amount to reap big rewards with recipes and without setting off too many cardiovascular alarms. It’s easy enough to see for yourself. Cook a few slices of bacon and:

place on a grilled cheese or tuna sandwich

add to salad (Cobb, spinach, frisee or plain old iceberg lettuce)

mix with slices of cold seafood and avocado (drizzle some vinaigrette dressing on top)

use as a soup garnish

combine with white beans and halved grape tomatoes for a quick side dish (sprinkle a bit of olive oil on top)

stuff into an omelet or frittata

include with cooked pasta (with sautéed broccoli rabe)

use as a base for tomato sauce (Amatriciana)

make a white pizza: top the crust with ricotta and Parmesan cheeses, a few spinach leaves and cut up bacon

revitalize meatloaf: place a few strips of bacon on top of the ground meat before baking

make savory muffins: mix in 1/2 cup grated cheese and 4-5 crumbled strips of cooked bacon into your favorite batter.

You get the point.

Beyond these simple, quick-to-cook pleasures, bacon has always been a culinary workhorse, much like onions and garlic. Its robust, smoky taste makes a remarkable contribution to some of our favorite, timeless recipes. Coq au Vin, for example, a rich stew made with chicken, mushrooms and great quantities of a full-bodied red wine; Quiche Lorraine, the fabulously tender cheese custard-in-a-crust; Fettucine Carbonara with its rich and eggy cream sauce; and Rumaki, a classic hors d’oeuvre made by broiling bacon-wrapped, soy-sauce soaked chicken livers.

Today there is such a rage for bacon that cooks have even touted its contribution to sweet dishes, including dessert. Really. The harmony of salt and sugar is captivating in dishes as straightforward as honeyed or brown-sugar crusted bacon with eggs for brunch. But you don’t have to look far and wide to find recipes for maple-bacon cupcakes, apple and bacon pie or fruit cobbler with bacon-streusel. And there’s a nice size selection of bacon candies to be had too, including brittle and bacon-chocolate bars.

Buying bacon isn’t as simple as it used to be. Most often it is sold, pre-sliced in packages (about 20 strips per pound for regular slices, 12-16 for thick cut, 30+ for thin sliced). But you can also buy thick slab bacon at supermarket deli counters and specialty food shops (remove the rind). There are lower-salt, pre-cooked and microwavable varieties as well as flavored (maple and black pepper, for example). You can even find “vegetarian” bacon (soy) that tries to imitate some of the saltier, smokier elements of true bacon flavor, and “kosher” bacon made with beef or turkey.

Pancetta is bacon that has been cured but not smoked; the flavor is much milder than traditional bacon. It is widely available at deli counters and in specialty food stores and comes in handy for fish, vegetable and pasta dishes that might be overwhelmed by the robust regular kind. Pancetta doesn’t come sliced; it is formed into a log and sold sliced or in chunks, by weight.

Canadian bacon is not true bacon; it is cured loin of pork. It looks, tastes and has the texture of ham rather than bacon.

Cooking bacon can be messy because the fat spatters. If you fry the slices, use a large pan, preferably cast iron (it holds heat the best) and low-medium heat. The lower heat helps keep the bacon from burning and shriveling. Drain the pan occasionally to cut down on greasiness. It should take anywhere from 5-12 minutes, depending on whether you’re cooking 3-4 slices or an entire pound.

You can broil or bake the slices too. To broil, separate the slices, place them on a cookie sheet and cook three inches away from the heat (turn slices occasionally). Broiling one pound should take about 6 minutes. To bake bacon, preheat the oven to 300 degrees, place the slices on a rack over a cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on desired doneness.