Now it seems Calabria’s fiery pork paste is popping up everywhere. We were even able to get our hands on some fantastic ’nduja here in Cambodia recently. We thought that was as good an excuse as any to tell you all about the Calabrese sausage paste and start a series on our best ’nduja recipes. As we publish the recipes, we’ll add links below under ‘How to Use ’Nduja’. Whilst the potatoes are baking just take 5 minutes to chop up the mozzarella balls into cubes and mix them with the Nduja pesto.

Once you’ve roasted the potatoes in ‘Nduja, we’re going to load them up with pesto. What kind of Pesto to use? Folks, today I'm delighted to bring you this delicious pesto and mozzarella stuffed baked potatoes recipe. Plus we certainly don't want a boring filling. We want something to liven up our evening, and tastebuds.

You’ll frequently read that ’nduja is pronounced ‘en-doo-ya’, just to make sure that you don’t make the mistake of pronouncing that ‘j’. But it’s worth noting that once again, depending on the Calabrian dialect being spoken, that ‘j’ might be very much pronounced. By 2015, ’nduja was getting used in restaurant kitchens all over the world, and not just Italian, but kitchens as diverse as that of British chef Jason Atherton in the UK and April Bloomfield at The Spotted Pig in the USA. British retailer Marks & Spencer, whose Calabrian-made Spicy Nduja and Tomato Pasta Sauce was “flying off the shelf”, called nduja the “ingredient of the moment”. Spilinga is not far from the more atmospheric hilltop town of Nicotera, where we stayed in an elegant albeit empty former palace (we were there off-season) with gorgeous gardens and sweeping views of the countryside out to sea, and headed down to the livelier beachside lower town of Marina di Nicotera, in the foothills, for dinner. Drain the pasta reserving around 75ml (⅓ Cup) of the cooking liquid, then add the drained pasta to the nduja and tomato mix.

That means there's plenty of time to be getting on with other things whilst the potatoes are baking. While it’s thought that the name ’nduja, which might once have been ‘anduja’, suggests that the Calabrian specialty was derived from the French ‘andouille’, which might have been introduced to Calabria in the 13th century by the Angevins, the only thing the two sausages share is that they’re smoked. If you’ve read my Risotto alla Milanese recipe, then you’ll know that pasta isn’t a big feature in our home. Living in the North though means we still need our comfort food, and this gnocchi bake with ‘nduja is exactly that. As ‘Nduja cooks, it releases an intensely piquant pepper infused oil, that merges with the gnocchi and tomato sauce. minutes before the pasta is ready add the tomatoes, the aim is not to cook the tomatoes but to heat them through,But ’nduja can also be served alongside your favourite cured meats and cheeses on a charcuterie board or cheese board if you’re entertaining. You can also add some nduja to an omelette or scrambled eggs, an eggs dish such as Terence’s Calabrian take on eggs in purgatory, an Italian salad, or your favourite tomato-based pasta sauce. In Calabria, ’nduja is typically made with just a few ingredients: the pork shoulder, pork belly and tripe of Calabrian pigs, local salt, and roasted spicy red peppers from Calabria, which give the sausage paste its vibrant red colour. Baked sweet potatoes have to be one of the easiest foods to prepare and they're cheap and filling too. This amazing pesto makes pasta dishes special but not only that, it's perfect for transforming everyday dishes into complete banquetes!