I totally did not take the above picture, it is from the Nduja Wiki. Nduja is a Calabrian sausage that I recently became aware of. It has a soft, spreadable, pate-esque texture and a fiery spice from Calabrian Chiles. It is supposed to be simply divine spread on bread or mixed into several minimalist pasta dishes. I am addled with pork lust at the prospect of trying this, it seems to be a perfect marriage of flavors and textures. Unfortunately, I think our prudish American food regulators have barred it being imported . I have found one US producer that will ship, Boccalone, but it is 24 greenbacks for 6 ounces, with a minimum 21 dollar shipping charge.
So, I am having serious trouble convincing myself that it is worth 45 bucks to sate my interest in trying a new pork product. I feel like the bitter taste of guilt would sully my first succulent Nduja experience. That amount of money seems to me to be an unforgivable excess. I remember a comment in response to my purchase of some Cahill's Elderberry wine cheese that I didn't like-
Anonymous said...
The taste is your well-earned punishment for being decadent enough to cough up nine bucks for a tiny piece of pretty cheese.
I felt obligated to snarky-ly respond-
Mr. Dave said...
In communist New York, decadent cheese buys you. Really? Decadent? Are you perchance North Korean?
But the exchange did make me examine the limits of how my culinary curiosity should impact my wallet. The nigh 50 Nduja dollars could probably do more good in the world in some other fashion. Sigh...
Also, yes I have researched making it at home, but it seems the ingredients (especially the Calabrian peppers) are hard to find. Plus, I already have some other dry-cured salumi projects on the way for this summer. I guess my Nduja lust will have to wait until the Food Network latches on to the stuff and makes it widely available, double sigh...
**EDIT**
One of my genius detective readers did some searching and hooked me up! Thanks Allison! See the following comment-
allison said...
I was curious so I did a little digging and found that it is available in NYC.
Bottom of this recipe....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/dining/231nrex.html
I looked up Murray's Cheese and they sell the Boccalone Njuda for 19.99 + shipping ($9 bucks)
http://www.murrayscheese.com/prodinfo.asp?number=00000005772
That price would probably make it taste a little better!!
**EDIT**
Mr. Dave-
ReplyDeleteProbably cheaper to make it yourself. Scott over at The Sausage Debauchery sells the hot peppers you need. He is in the process of making some. And Larbo over at This Little Piggy was featured in the NYT piece on Nduja. I'm sure either would answer questions. They are both very nice.
http://sausagedebauchery.blogspot.com/2010/02/back-on-horse.html
http://www.thislittlepiggy.us/2009/10/07/nduja-pate/
If you click on the Chilis button on the right, you should get a handful of nduja posts. I've thought about making a version of it, but the chamber is a little too high maintenance for a long cure. One of these days...
I was curious so I did a little digging and found that it is available in NYC.
ReplyDeleteBottom of this recipe....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/dining/231nrex.html
I looked up Murray's Cheese and they sell the Boccalone Njuda for 19.99 + shipping ($9 bucks)
http://www.murrayscheese.com/prodinfo.asp?number=00000005772
That price would probably make it taste a little better!!
Three cheers for Jon & Allison! Excellent detective work! I think these two options are great ideas. The near $50 for a small amount of nduja seems a little excessive to me too.
ReplyDeleteAllison, you are the man. Ordered it, still expensive, but what the heck. Supposed to receive my spicy sausage on Monday!
ReplyDeleteGlad I could help! You'll have to let us know how it is...when I was googling it there were a bunch of articles in the past year or so about how this is really growing in popularity. It will be interesting to see if it catches on and becomes more accessible!
ReplyDelete