If you can't find salt pork at your grocery store, pancetta, an Italian salt-cured pork belly, is a good substitute, as is bacon, although its smokiness will come through in the soup or stew.

Claudia Romeo: You may know it by the name of capocollo, coppa, capicola, gabagool — dozens of names to describe one Italian delicacy: a distinctive cured meat made from pork neck, easy to spot ...