Prolly most of you are not familiar w/ 'Nduja. It's a spreadable salami from Calabria, often referred to as the "red Nutella". In the Fall in Calabria, when they butcher the pigs, there's a lot of left-over stuff....eyeballs, heart, brain, liver, kidney, stomach, testicles....all that sorta good stuff. At the end of the day, they grind it all up, hit it w/ a big dosage of hot Calabrian pepper, stuff it in the casing, and then cure it. Because it has little muscle tissue, it's got a soft/spreadable consistency. And the Calabrian pepper covers up the flavors of the various body parts.
I've not had any of the real stuff, but I've had several US-made versions. LaQuercia, Boccolone for two. You can read about a comparison here:
NdujaComparison
Anyway, I'm a big fan of 'Njuda. In fact, I often make it myself. I buy a hot Calabrian salami ('fraMani or Creminelli), chop it up in chunks, toss it in the Cuisinart w/ some olive oil (to give it a spreadable texture like eyeballs), add some hot Pimenton or Calabrian red pepper, and let her rip, until I get the texture right. Delicious stuff, it is.
I recently read a short blurb in bonApetit about a new 'Nduja producer up in Chicago:
NdujaArtisans
So I ordered some, plus two other of their salamis. I tried their 'Nduja last night w/ one of my salami buddies down in SantaFe. We were both blown away by it. It had a smooth/velvety texture of FoieGras or ground eyeballs. It had a beautiful spicy flavor from the Calabrian peppers w/ a kinda prickly heat in the backtaste. But it wasn't so hot that it takes your head off. Absolutely delicious it was. Best 'Nduja I ever done had. Blows the others away.
I served it w/ a WindGap TrousseauGris '11. But the Calabrian peppers were a bit to much for it. So I opened a slightly sweet frizzante Marzemino. Bingo....a perfect match it was.
Anyway...now you know about 'Nduja and the best one to buy.
Tom
