Watermelon Arugula and Pancetta Salad

Watermelon Arugula Salad with Pancetta in the foreground. We served it with grilled chicken and a Quinoa Salad with Tomatoes and Avocados.

Welcome to Grilling Week!

We’ve been eating pretty well around here since grilling season started. I’ve been trying some new recipes that sounded delicious to me, and changing them up a bit, just to put my own spin on them, and I’ve found some winners that I’d like to share with you: couple of side dishes, and a glorious rub that is a KEEPER.

Should be lots of fun and some great recipes, too, so let’s get started!

Today’s recipe I stumbled across one afternoon while watching the Barefoot Contessa. A watermelon salad with greens, it seemed like the perfect recipe to accompany something on the grill: so easy and delicious that it sounded  like a must-try! And then, I remembered I had some leftover Spicy Honey Mustard-Glazed Pancetta in my refrigerator.

Just the usual type leftover one has in one’s fridge, right? (Kidding!) I had tried this Giada De Laurentiis recipe a day or two earlier, but it wasn’t quite as perfect as I’d hoped it would be,  just because it was too salty  thick and chewy for my family. But, I thought to myself, “Salty, crunchy, spicy.. .could be kinda treated like crumbled bacon! What a great foil that would be for the sweet refreshing coolness of the watermelon!

So…I guess…to be fair…I’d better give you both recipes.  Since this is Grilling Week, and I’m talking about dishes specifically for a cookout, I really think you COULD (although I haven’t) do the pancetta on the grill. I hope someone tries it and gets back with me. Simply brown the pancetta on the grill, (or in a cast iron skillet, on the grill) and brush it with the glaze, and letting it quickly finish on the grill (be careful, because the sugars in the honey will burn, quickly). The slices of pancetta that I used in these pictures, I had already prepared in the oven, according to Giada’s recipe, and they were leftover, so I just chopped them up and threw them on the salad. So, you could do it either way, I think.

The Barefoot Contessa’s original recipe called for 1/2 lb. of arugula, but all I had was a baby spinach arugula blend. It was perfect, and I’d do that all over again, so that’s what I’m going to put in my adaptation. The arugula adds a nice bitterness against the watermelon, but I’m sure you could substitute another nice blend of salad greens, if you have one you prefer, or if you don’t care for arugula.

Here’s my adaptation of the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe for Watermelon and Arugula Salad (that I dolled up with my pancetta – and, by the by, you could just as easily use bacon):

The Recipe for Watermelon Arugula Salad with Pancetta

One more note about Giada’s recipe for the pancetta: It called for the pancetta to be sliced 1/8 to 1/4″ thick. I asked the deli to slice mine 1/4″ thick. Next time I do this recipe, I’m going to have them cut it thinner. The saltiness was too intense, and the meat got too chewy. I think I’d rather have thin and crisp on these than thick and chewy, because thick and chewy became more like jerky. And, the recipe that I’m going to give you for this is half her original recipe in quantity, because in this salad, the pancetta is more of an embellishment, than a key dish component.

The Recipe for Spicy Honey Mustard Glazed Pancetta

So…this is the good stuff that was leftover in my fridge that I put on the Barefoot Contessa’s salad. Oh, my, was it all divine together!

Cutting up the Spicy Honey Mustard Glazed Pancetta. I treated it in this salad like it was a bacon garnish. But what a bacon it was!!! Mmmmm….

 

Oh, yum! I’m ready to get my grill on, right now!

I think this would be a good recipe to save and to pin on Pinterest, don’t you? I made the perfect image for you, so you could easily do just that! 

Yum