Sausage, Nduja and Fennel Pasta

I’ll be honest Ndjua is a new thing to me, in fact I’ve only been aware that it’s “A Thing” for a couple of years now. If you too are unaware of its existence, I’ll try to explain. Nduja is a spicy Italian spreadable salami, I’ve only seen it in Jars, but I guess it probably comes in a traditional salami shape as well. The taste is sweet spicy and carries herbal note that I can’t quite explain but safe to say it’s very very tasty but in moderation. My previous exposure had been on a pizza, pretty much mostly pizza outlets have whacked on a bit of Nduja because apparently its rather on trend or maybe not, to be frank, I really don’t care.

Right then, my creation. As mentioned, pizza seems to be the vehicle of choice and I wanted to try something different but sticking to the Italian theme I opted for Pasta.

Using the Nduja as a sauce ingredient I bolstered the meat content with some actual bona fide sausage, to add depth I went for the usual wine for piquancy plus fennel to add depth and an interesting background flavour. The result is a moderately spicy pasta that’s slightly sweet, and herby with a tang at the end to make you want more.

Ingredients – 4 People

4 Good quality Pork Sausages

2 heaped teaspoons of Nduja Paste

1 teaspoon of Ground Fennel seeds

1 Carrot finely chopped

Half a Celery stalk finely chopped

Half a glass of white whine

1 Tablespoon of tomato puree

1 Medium size onion diced

2 cloves of Garlic finely chopped

500 ml of Chicken Stock

Pasta of your choice – I went with Fusilli

Remove the skin from the sausages and break into small chunks

In a large frying pan gently brown the sausage bits and then remove from the pan placing to one side

Add the chopped onion, season and gently fry until soft. Turn up the heat, add the Carrot, Celery, Fennel and Garlic , season again and fry for 1-2 minutes. Now stir through the Nduja until well combined. Add the tomato puree, cook for a 30 seconds or so, then stir well to make sure all ingredients are combined. Add the wine and using a wooden spoon or spatula make sure you get all the brown bits at the bottom of the pan released, continue until the wine has all but evaporated and stir in the stock and add a little more seasoning

Bring to a slow simmer then add back in the browned sausage, once simmering again partly cover and cook for 20-30 mins , until the carrots are soft. Once cooked, check again for seasoning

When the sauce is about 10 mins away (or cooked, you can leave it to simmer gently) bring a pan of water to the boil, add plenty of salt and cook the pasta to instructions. If your sauce looks a little dry whilst the pasta Is cooking put a ladle of the pasta water into the sauce, stir well and it should look luxuriously silky again

Drain the pasta well and in the pan add a good glug of olive oil plus a lot of black pepper. Stir well.

At this point you can either ladle the sauce into the pan with the cooked pasta, stir well and serve. Or you can dish out pasta onto plates/bowls and ladle sauce on top.

Finish each dish with a grated parmesan and chopped basil