by Austin Coe Butler
Feeds 2-4
Here’s what a cheese monger actually cooks on a busy weekday after being on their feet and slinging cheese all day—a super simple, extremely flavorful sauce that comes together in 30 seconds and gives you a finished dish in the time it takes for a pot of water to boil. The sauce revolves around two exceptional ingredients: incredible canned tomatoes and Nduja.
Nduja (en-DOO-ya) is a spicy, spreadable salume, or pork sausage, from Calabria, the arid “toe” of Italy known for its fiery red chilis, which give Nduja its signature color and smoky spice. Its name comes from Andouille, a relic from when Calabria was ruled by the French-speaking Angevin dynasty in the 13th century. Nduja, like Soppressata and other Italian salumi, is fermented and cured, so it is ready to eat and doesn’t need to be cooked further. It’s spreadable texture comes from its higher ration of fat to meat. You’ll find Calabrians smearing it on bread alongside cheese, and it definitely deserves a place on your next cheese board.
Nduja serves as the seasoning for this sauce, but the backbone—the true hero—is Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes. These tomatoes San Marzano-style/Plum tomatoes grown in California, steamed and skinned, then topped with tomato purée, three leaves of basil, and a pinch of salt before being canned. They have everything you need for a good sauce—you just have to do the blending.
1 can (796 g) Bianco DiNapoli Whole Peeled Tomatoes with Basil
1 package (6 oz) Smoking Goose Nduja
1 package (500 g) Gentile Casarecce pasta (You could use another curled pasta like trofie, busiate, or fussili.)
1/2 C. white wine like pinot grigio (optional)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano to taste
Fresh basil to garnish
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, season generously with salt—not like the sea, but like a broth or soup. Add your pasta and cook a minute or two shy of the manufacturer’s recommendation for al dente. For this specific pasta that would be 6 minutes (manufacturer’s recommendation is 8 minutes).
2. As the water comes to a boil, prepare the sauce. Combine the Nduja and tomatoes in the blender and blend until smooth for 30 seconds. You could do this by hand if you wanted to—crush the tomatoes, break up the Nduja in the pan—but sometimes aiming for 30 seconds. (For a quick clean-up, I rinse the sauce from the blender and fill it halfway with hot water and a drop of dish soap, then run it for a few seconds before rinsing it one last time.)
3. Set a large pan or saucier over medium heat. Add the olive oil and once it’s shimmering add the purée and the wine. Simmer the sauce, stirring occasionally while the pot comes to a boil and the pasta cooks. Add the pasta to the pan along with a ladle of starchy pasta water. Continue to stir until the sauce thickens and the pasta to finishing cooking until perfectly al dente, about 3 or 4 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly. For some people, this may mean embracing your inner Marcella Hazan and adding butter (or a pinch of sugar), which will temper the spice of the Nduja.
4. Garnish with fresh basil and a shower of Parmigiano Reggiano.