Gorgonzola, walnuts and spring onions served with pasta and flakes of Nduja Recipe

 

Gorgonzola, walnuts and spring onions penne with flakes of Nduja Recipe

Lidl had Nduja in during their Italian week recently, I've tried nduja a couple of times and enjoyed this spicy salami paste as a topping on pizza, you dot teaspoon dollops here and there, and nduja is supposed to be really hot but whoever made it for Lidl forgot the chilli... 

Trying to work out what you do with it I watched a video on Italian Squisita (it's the Italian, Italian cooking channel on You Tube in Italian) and made the basic recipe where you make a tomato sauce (with chilli) and add several tablespoons of nduja to it, which melts into your sauce and makes a great ragu for your pasta, that's easy and tasty.

The other part of the video below is where a chef turns the nduja ragu into flakes by making the same sauce and then dehydrating it in an oven for forty minutes. It took me two hours at 100 degrees. You end up with flakes of a spicy tomato and nduja that melt in your mouth. Peeling it off grease proof paper is difficult though, and since we are motivated by the taste and texture of grub, not picking at the cooked caramalised flakes takes resilience.

This for me is a very 'cheffy' dish, and it could be made to be very pretty and worthy of a posh restaurant. But it's one I'd make for guests as once the flakes are made, the rest of the dish is simple; prepare and toast nuts in a dry frying pan, add a little salt, make a sauce which is gorgonzola simply melted in butter then tossed with, al dente, pasta and finely chopped spring onions, then arrange and serve.

Buon Appetito!