Nduja and a burgeoning wine industry pioneered by Statti are putting Calabria on the map. Calabria is at the very tip of the boot – a region that hasn’t yet been talked about much even while it’s neighbors to the north (Campania) and the west (Sicily) are enjoying success in the wine market. But ever since the Boston Wine Expo featured a symposium on Calabrian wine we have started to see it pop up on wine lists. Bina Osteria carries several bottles and it is all over the restaurants and wine stores in San Francisco and Napa. The wine is not going to knock your socks off but they provide excellent quality for the price.
Nduja is a spicy spreadable salami with a melting texture. Creamy meat, basically. A family friend recently brought back a piece of it for me from Italy:
You could do any number of things with this tasty mound, but I decided to put it in a basic tomato sauce, mash it all about, cook it down for a bit and it turned into a savory and spicy meat sauce.
Below you can see nduja on a sandwich with grilled onions that I got at the Boccalone store in the Ferry Building in San Francisco on the day that the NYTimes article appeared. They were very proud of the exposure. Delicious.
You can order nduja through their website. If anyone feels like buying me a present in the near future, then feel free to sign me up for their salumi society…
June 19, 2009 at 10:20 am
[...] of Nduja to the lingcod dish. Nduja is a spreadable salami from Calabria (my mom’s hometown) that is starting to become more popular in the states. I urge you to go buy it, then travel to Calabria and spend lots of money in its [...]