cauliflower + ‘nduja {pasta}

I’m not quite sure what it is about me, but, on a regular basis, people give me food. Let me be more specific, because people giving me food obviously makes sense because of what I do. What I”m talking about is pork. A lot of people give me a lot of pork. Domenico came home again last night with a half a baby pig, two slabs of pancetta and an entire guanciale. All gifts, for me, from his contractor in Tuscany. Grazie.

But last week this whole pork-gift-giving-thing reached new levels. We had just finished a delicious and massive lunch at Flavio Velavevodetto (their portions are huge) and were sitting on the outside terrace, slightly comatose, enjoying the warm weather and our coffee when this came to the table:

If you are a bit confused, don’t worry, so was I. At first I thought it was some sort of animal organ I’d never seen before. But upon closer inspection, I became very excited, and then slightly alarmed. It turned out to be  1.5 kilos (3 pounds) of  ‘nduja. The excited part was because I realized it was the super spicy type of sausage from Calabria that I love. The alarmed part? This was due to its sheer size.

As Flavio started telling me about the producer in Calabria that he got it from, he also began giving me recipes for how to use it: In pasta, on bruschetta, on pizza. But as he told me the quantities, I realized that he was talking Flavio-Velevevodetto-mega-sized-restaurant-portions. I did the math quickly in my head, dividing by about 10, and quikly realized that this hunk-o-goodness was enough spicy pork to last me well into 2016.

Never fear. I got started right way and have been cooking with it all week.

In case you’re not familiar with this queen of Calabrian sausages, let me fill you in. ‘Nduja (pronounced ‘en DOO ya’) is a mixture of pork (jowl, pancetta and lard) along with both hot and sweet red peppers. The mixture is finely chopped, to form a paste, which is then put into a natural casing (the intestine) and then briefly smoked over olive tree cuttings. They are then left to age for about a month or so. The resulting sausage is lucious, spreadable, and very spicy. But also very nuanced. I can’t begin to describe the aroma that you get when you cut into one: it’s a mixture of pork and pepper, for sure, but the peppers are so wonderfully fragrant in that part of the world that the entire kitchen smells like heaven.

The most common recipes use ‘Nduja as a base for a pasta sauce, so I thought I’d start out with that. I’d had pasta con ‘nduja e broccoletti many times, but since I had some beautiful cauliflower I thought I’d go with that instead.

The most difficult part of making this pasta is figuring out how much ‘Nduja to use. I kept reading recipes that called for 25 grams of ‘Nduja per 500 grams / 1 pound of pasta. That seemed like WAY too little to me (remember I had 1.5 kilos to work my way though) and so the first time I made it I almost doubled it. And we almost died. It was really, really hot, and I had to add a couple of cups of ricotta to the mix to tone it down (which is actually a good way to deal with any cooking mistake. Ricotta almost always helps)

But I didn’t give up and wanted a recipe that was all about the ‘Nduja  with no ricotta in the mix. And so I went back to the drawing board and settled on 30 grams. Which was just the right amount of spice.

Don’t worry though, you should be able to find ‘Nduja in more manageable quantities than I was gifted. While you’ll be reading about a few more of my recipes in the coming weeks (and then some), I thought that it would be fun to share the porky wealth and so decided to ‘pay it forward’, giving chunks to Gina, Rachel, and Eleonora,  good cooks all. So make sure you keep tabs on their blogs too. Things should be getting very spicy. I don’t think Flavio quite realized what he had started when he plopped this beast down on my table last Sunday. 

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cauliflower + 'nduja {pasta}

Prep 10 mins

Cook 20 mins

Total 30 mins

Author Elizabeth

Yield 4 -5

Ingredients

• 500 grams/ 1 pound rigatoni
• 1 large head cauliflower (1 kilo/ 2 pounds)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 30 grams/ 1 oz ‘nduja

Instructions

1. Clean and trim the cauliflower: cut the head in quarters and eliminate the core. Carefully divide into small, bite sized florets, with no stem attached (you can save the core and stems for another use).
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the rigatoni and return to boil. After 3 minutes add the cauliflower and cook until done.
3. In the meantime heat the olive oil in a pan large enough to hold all the pasta and cauliflower. When the oil is hot, add the ‘nduja, stirring it to let it melt. Do not over cook, and turn off the heat and stir it around with a wooden spoon without letting it sizzle.
4. When pasta is done, drain, reserving a cup of the cooking water. Add the drained pasta and cauliflower to the skillet and heat, stirring, while adding the water a bit at a time. Make sure the pasta is well coated. Serve.