Thursday, March 20, 2008

Missing Speck and a Great Pasta

It's time for Presto Pasta Night and, normally I would make a dish, take a picture and share the recipe and some short tale about it. A month ago I wrote about my hunt for Speck for a delicious looking recipe I found in a magazine. I made do with Serrano Ham because the only shop that even knew what I was talking about was out of speck and said it was similar to the ham. So they put my name on a list, because I needed to try it.

Imagine how excited I was when I got the call yesterday!!!! So for those of you who are interested....here's what speck looks like.

Hopefully, I'll actually get a chance to whip up a dish of it tonight, but I'm busy juggling a few other blog related dishes, so....at least you know what speck looks like.

I took a break from my other projects and did whip up a bowl ...but, the photo didn't come out any better than the first time, and truthfully, it's been a month, but I think I like the flavor of the Serrano ham better. That said, it was delicious. I just don't think the difference in flavor is enough to worry about. I'm sure the people in Italy who smoke the hams will beg to differ.

2 comments:

Katie Zeller said...

I had to tell you - the ham truck came around today and I bought a half of a Vendeen ham, sliced.
It looks exactly like your photo. The slices are about 3/8" thick. He comes about twice a year. It's not nearly as good as a good Spanish ham (which I think is better than most Italian) but it's great for cooking!

Anonymous said...

Having eaten speck in Italy and jamon Serrano in Spain (and also admitting to being a bit of a snot about different types of ham), depending on what you were planning on doing w/ the speck, serrano is a fine substitute. In fact, you probably could even use proscuitto too. You're right though, purists would beg to differ, but the truth is, you'll be find w/ any salted, cured sliced pork!

amy @ http://www.weareneverfull.com