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Saturday, 12 November 2011

London Cooking Club - An Nduja Feast by Unearthed


The London Foodie is a non-commercial blog, I do not sell advertising space and have no intention to do so in future. There are however a handful of companies that I wholeheartedly support, and Unearthed is one of them.


Founded by Simon and Carrie as recently as 2008, they started Unearthed to bring to our shores (and shelves), their food discoveries from selected artisan producers in continental Europe. In Brittany they found a smooth Duck Mousse, in Le Mans an award-winning Rillettes and in Aveyron an exceptional Saucisson Sec.

Selection of Unearthed's goodies to kick off proceedings

Their latest discovery is the Calabrian Nduja. A delicious ingredient, Nduja is a spicy spreadable sausage made from diverse parts of the pig such as the shoulder, belly and jowl as well as tripe and head,  minced with roasted peppers and a mixture of spices including paprika. It can be simply spread over  toast or used as a cooking ingredient in sauces and other dishes.


A few months ago I took part in an Nduja Recipe Challenge run by Unearthed, and devised a recipe for them using this ingredient - "Pan-Fried Halibut on Butter Beans and Nduja with a Lemon & SageDressing". I really enjoyed the experience and was pleased with the results. The combination of fish and pork worked well, and the Nduja added an extra level of "umaminess" to the dish. I loved the ingredient. If you would like to try this recipe at home you can find it here.


More recently, I was asked to host a Nduja Cooking Club at my home in Islington, and invite a few food writers to try out Unearthed's Nduja in a range of different recipes. As with my usual cooking clubs, I devised a menu and allocated a dish to each participant. It was also a great opportunity for us to meet (some for the first time) and cook together.

Trust an Italian to make good pasta, Fede at work!
We spent a fabulous Sunday afternoon together, you can see the menu we cooked below.

Pasta Bites' Linguine with Nduja, Cherry Tomatoes & Basil

Nduja Cooking Club
Menu
23rd October 2011

Canapés

Spicy Nduja Palmier
(Recipe/Prepared by May – Slow Food Kitchen)

Unearthed Mezze Platter
(Supplied by Unearthed)

Starter

Linguine with Nduja, Cherry Tomatoes & Basil
(Prepared by Fede of Pasta Bites)

Mains

Pan-Fried Cod on Butter Beans and Nduja with a Lemon and Sage Dressing
(Recipe/Prepared by Luiz & Rosana of The London Foodie & Hot and Chilli)

Pimp My Piri Piri Poussin
(Recipe by Eat Like a Girl, prepared by Qin & Nic of In Pursuit of Food and Cherrapeno)

Accompaniments

Buttered Samphire & Crispy Roast Potatoes
(Prepared by Luiz & Rosana of The London Foodie & Hot and Chilli)

Greek Salad
(Prepared by Sian of Domestic Sluttery)

Dessert

Lemon Posset
(Recipe by Kavey Eats, prepared by Cassey of A Girl Has to Eat)

Rosana's and my Pan-fried Cod with Butter Beans, Nduja and a Sage and Lemon Dressing
For more eloquent accounts of our Nduja Cooking Club, please visit the following sites:


If you would like to join us at one of our events, visit the London Cooking Club page on this site for more information. Each person will cook one dish and bring a bottle of wine to share. There are no fees to participate in any of our London Cooking Club events.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to The London Foodie for updates via e-mail, RSS or Twitter (@thelondonfoodie) and be the first to learn when new dates are released.

Future London Cooking Club events include:

15th January 2012 - "Burma by MiMi" - Hosted by British-Burmese food blogger MiMi of Meemalee's Kitchen, and co-founder of Grazing Asia Supper Club, MiMi will be presenting us her native Burmese cuisine.

12th February 2012 - "Jewish Cooking Club" - Hosted by  Jewish novelist  Stella Newman, author of Pear Shaped, and Canadian foodie extraordinaire Ira Dubinsky who will be introducing us to a fantastic Jewish menu and recipes for London Cooking Club members.

18th March 2012 - "A Neapolitan Easter" - Hosted by Gina (@Gigi_nav) and Italian food blogger Fede Rilli of Pasta Bites, Italophiles and resident experts on their home cuisine.

8 comments:

  1. with respect I think this type of thing is a bit rascist and anti enviromental, theres great great ingredients even grown in London and you are looking to fly in all these others, I think this is truly meaningless.I like your blog but I haver to say this. Are you in Highbury?

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  2. Racist? Do you know what racist means superchick? Not a term to throw about as ignorantly as you are.

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  3. Oh wow, I wish I could have come to this event! All the dishes look absolutely delicious. I made your halibut with nduja and butterbeans recently and it was wonderful, so may have to have a go at my own version of the recipes above too :-)

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  4. Great things from greta people! Greetings!

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  5. I am still dreaming of the delicious food that everyone made on that sunday.
    Thank you for inviting me Luiz, I had a lovely day, met new people and got to try some new tastes - win, win all round!

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  6. The nduja feast looks great and even better are the glimpses of your shiny new kitchen in the background Luiz!

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  7. And great photos, thanks for making me look ok :)

    What with superchic comment - 'raScist'? We were a mix of people from all corners of the world, and we all cooked together. I say it's the opposite of 'raScist'

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  8. This is SO exciting. Nduja is a total obsession of mine, and is a truly delicious 'trendy' addition to our imports here in London. Long may it continue.

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