Uncooked pancetta?

Okay, I've had a hankering for some Tuscan bean crostini made like those at our favorite Italian restaurant in Providence. It's Cannelllini beans, garlic, crisp pancetta, and rosemary drizzled with good olive oil.
So, there I was at the deli counter at our Harris Teeter ordering a quarter pound of pancetta. A young couple was next to me. The man said to the woman, "That looks good, why don't we get some of that?" She said, "Pancetta? Okay, great." He said, "Do we need to do anything to it or just eat it like that?" She said, "No, it's good to go. It's just like Prosciutto."
At that, I turned to them and said, "Really? I thought it was more along the lines of bacon and you had to cook it." She confidentally said, "No, it's cured."
So, yes, I guess it is cured, but still...I've never heard of anyone not cooking it.
Was she right?

Carrie, we generally treat pancetta like other cured meats, and eat it "raw" and also cook with it.

I am sure the length of curing time varies widely between producers, so we tend to err on the side of caution, not serving it uncooked to infants, compromised immune system folks, really elderly etc.

We've never had any problem.

Yes - it can be eaten as is, though I don't really care to.
We used to sell it - half the people wanted it in a chunk, obviously for cooking purposes, and the other half wanted it sliced thin, for sandwiches and such.

Apparently the local sausage in Cuneo is good to eat raw withina few hours of buying it from the butchers... though the thought of raw uncured sausage somehow doesn't appeal

About as appetizing to me as sashimi or anything tartare. I.e., ain't gonna happen!

Cured meat is not cooked. That being said, items like bacon, whether cured or uncured have to be "cooked" in most states before sale. This is usually done by smoking the meat until the internal temperature reaches 140°F for 15 minutes. It is now safe to eat "raw", i.e., as it comes from the store.

Theoretically, pancetta is only cured, not cooked, but practically speaking I have not found it uncooked in my neighborhood.

BTW, curing is either done by soaking the meat in a brine, minimally salt, sugar, sodium nitrite, or by coating it with a rub with the same minimal ingredients.

Thanks all. You guys are much savvier than I was. Now I'm enlightened.
I also found something online that seems to explain it very well and thought I'd share. I guess the woman next to me at Harris Teeter did know what she was talking about! It would still gross me out to have a piece of pancetta draped around a piece of melon , however, the Tuscan bean crostini hit the mark!

PROSCIUTTO, PANCETTA, ITALY'S HAM, BACON: Ask Food Network:
Rocky Mountain News
By Food Network Kitchens
May 25, 2005

Question: What is the difference between pancetta and prosciutto? I know
they both are Italian hams, but are they interchangeable in recipes? -
Stephanie Reed, Smyrna, Del.

Answer: There's no harm in substituting pancetta and prosciutto for each
other. But as you're probably aware, prosciutto does come at a dear price,
and cooking with the best of it (prosciutto di Parma) seems a needless
extravagance unless specified in a recipe. If you do substitute, take note
that prosciutto is considerably saltier than pancetta and adjust
accordingly.

The difference between prosciutto and pancetta is the difference between
ham and bacon, albeit ham and bacon of a particularly exalted variety.

Prosciutto, it's true, is Italian ham. In fact, prosciutto is the Italian
word for ham. And like all ham, it's simply the rear leg of the pig, cured.

The prosciutto that most Americans associate with the word is more properly
referred to as prosciutto crudo, or raw ham.

Though prosciutto crudo is made all over Italy, the best of it comes from
Emilia-Romagna, in north-central Italy, near Parma. There prosciutto is
dry-cured with salt anywhere from 10 months to two years, using specially
raised hogs.

Its production is an elaborate and strictly controlled art, designed to
produce ham with a minimum of salt in a bid to preserve the natural
sweetness of the pork. The result is one of Italy's great contributions to
gastronomy.

Lynn Rossetto Kasper puts it best when she describes the taste as being
"like someone infused the flavors of nuts, cream, ripe fruit and meat
essence into a ham."

Such a glorious product should be treated with respect, sliced paper-thin
and tampered with as little as possible. Prosciutto dries out and goes bad
quickly. Be sure to use it within two days of purchase.

Simply put, pancetta is bacon-cured pork belly. But bacon of a different
sort. Unlike American bacon, pancetta is unsmoked, and though it's crudo,
pancetta undergoes a special curing process that renders it safe to eat
raw, so it can be treated like ham.

Pancetta is everyday food in Italy. It turns up raw in sandwiches, on
plates of antipasti and cooked in just about everything else: pasta sauces,
beans, soups. There's no limit to what it can do.

Do be aware, though, that if you go looking for Italian pancetta in the
U.S., you're going to come up empty. Its importation is banned; all
pancetta sold here is domestically produced. Fortunately, much of it is
terrific.

[Jenise]

I'm suddenly reminded of something I saw on a local PBS show about Seattle-area cooking. Thick slices of pancetta (still rolled in a circle) were placed on a cookie sheet and baked until crisp. Then fresh goat cheese was spooned on top, and then each was topped with slices of pear. There may have been other ingredients involved but the combination of salty/sweet/creamy/crisp/soft sounded heavenly to me, and they very attractive. Of course, you need a note from your cardiologist to eat them....

Which has nothing to do with raw pancetta. But it is another idea for using pancetta that many, like me, might not have considered.