Friday, February 18, 2011

Pancetta Green Beans - French Fridays with Dorie

Pancetta Green Beans - French Fridays with Dorie
Pancetta Green Beans
This week, the French Fridays with Dorie group made Pancetta Green Beans from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Around my French Table.

I work on Saturday this week, so I have Friday off. I explored a Friday farmer's market in a neighboring city and picked up some green beans. I'm lucky to live in Los Angeles where there is a farmer's market someplace in the area everyday of the year.


The beans are blanched for a few minutes, then set in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Since I was only making a small side dish, I went to Whole Foods and bought...$.65 worth of pancetta! (One very thin slice, please). Remember, I'm the lady at the seafood stand buying $.50 worth of shrimp for dinner. You cook up the pancetta, add back in the green beans and enjoy!

Pancetta Green Beans - French Fridays with Dorie
My dad has a Meyer lemon tree. Thus, everything has lemon on it lately (in fact, next week is "Lemon Week" on the blog!) I threw some zest on the green beans and it brightened the flavor of this lovely side dish. The pancetta is so warm, salty and satisfying. I need to raid my piggy bank to buy $.65 more! :)

Be sure to check out my fellow French Fridays with Dorie members and see their creations!

Please note: French Fridays with Dorie will not be posting recipes. Please support Dorie and purchase the book or find it at your library.

18 comments:

  1. Love the Meyer lemon zest...great idea!

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  2. Very lovely - fresh produce sounds heavenly right about now. The zest was a lovely addition. MMMM

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  3. I love the lemon zest addition, too...but I'm going to smiling for days about the 65 cents. Priceless! (But did you only eat one shrimp?)

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  4. @Audrey Audrey, the shrimps were on sale so I ended up with FIVE whole shrimp! :) hee hee - mary

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  5. I'm looking forward to lemon week! I just bought an appalling number of lemons :)

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  6. Beautiful pictures! I love the beans set against the green place mat... and a Meyer lemon tree??? How wonderful! These are the things we only dream about here in VA!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog. I've been a big fan of yours for a long time, esp. love the 30 days of bundts!

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  7. Your photos are great and I was looking at the one with the Whole Foods label and thinking...does that say 65 cents? Great job. I am always impressed with the folks that have a plan. How cool is it to add this amazing flavor that completely transforms a dish..and do it for that price. Great job and lovely post.

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  8. Yum, I love the idea of adding lemon zest to this dish! Sounds terrific, and love your photo! :)

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  9. Beautiful photos, Mary... even the $0.60 package from WF! :)

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  10. I bet the lemon zest was perfect. You're so lucky to have all that lemon available to cook and bake with:)Your beans look wonderful. I also loved this recipe:)

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  11. I made these for Christmas, but I like the addition of the zest! Thanks for sharing! Have a wonderful weekend!

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  12. Beautiful photos, great blog and still laughing at "I like big bundts"!

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  13. Hmmm - this looks amazing Mary. And now has me craving my won .65 worth of pancetta since my hubs doesn't eat pork.

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  14. Love the .65 pancetta! Im so jealous of your Farmers market! I will have to wait until summer!!

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  15. Oh man, I love winter, but posts like this do make me long for summer.

    And yay for lemon week!

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  16. great photo and yummy looking green beans!

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  17. Wonderful photos and good idea to add the zest. I paid only $2.80 for my pancetta and wished I'd gotten less - too salty!

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  18. Beautiful piece of pancetta! and so cheap! The lemon is a great idea.

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