i have a thousand subscribers now! feels weird. to thank you i will give you this recipe for creamy ‘nduja pasta.
‘nduja is a spicy and spreadable sausage, very fatty. it was hugely popular a few years ago and has now fallen somewhat out of fashion, but i can’t move on. (i also still like dalgona coffee)
serves two!
ingredients
8 oz fresh pasta
a tablespoon of butter
half a sweet onion
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 oz nduja
1/2 cup of full fat kefir or yogurt, maybe craime fraiche?
parmesan (you know better than me how much you want)
half a lemon
big handful of chopped parsley
generously salt a pot of water & set it to boil.
meanwhile, chop your onion into slivers pole to pole. cook in melted butter in a pan on high, splashing with water whenever it threatens to scorch, until still coherent but peanut butter brown. or you could be normal and caramelize the normal way—again, you do want the onions to retain some shape. taste the onion for reference.
add tomato paste and stir it around until it also caramelizes from firetruck fresh-from-the-can red to a deep brick red. the onions will continue darkening! taste the combo for reference.
add the ‘nduja. break it up like you’re cooking ground beef. stir everything together. doesnt it smell great? taste the sauce for reference. at this point it will be much spicier and saltier than the finished dish.
at this point the water should be boiling! add your fresh pasta, cook for two minutes til almost almost to your taste texture-wise, then (carefully) take it out of the pot with tongs and put it directly, still wet, into the nduja sauce. stir it all up with a generous palmful of parm. taste. it should still be too salty and too spicy. if it’s not a LITTLE too spicy, now is a great time to add red pepper flakes.
stir in your dairy & the parsley. taste. it will probably need a little acid. add lemon juice to taste. if you need it, now is the time to add more parm for saltiness and savoriness, butter for fattiness, or red pepper flakes for spice.
enjoy!
You are losing it seriously and yet the fans are tripling. Magical.