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:

Cherrapeno

Pasta Bites

Hot & Chilli

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.

My Recipe for The Nduja Challenge - "Pan-Fried Halibut on Butter Beans and Nduja with a Lemon and Sage Dressing"

I was excited to be invited alongside four other bloggers to enter a competition and devise a recipe using Calabrian Nduja. A delicious ingredient, Nduja is a spicy spreadable sausage made with different parts of the pig such as the shoulder, belly and jowl as well as tripe and head, roasted peppers and a mixture of spices including paprika.

The competition is being run by Unearthed, a young and dynamic company, managed by a small number of people including Simon Day whom I met at a charity dinner at the late Fernandez & Leluu supper club. Simon is one of the buyers and travels the world to unearth his foodie discoveries, like Nduja, and bring these to the shelves of Waitrose, Ocado and Abel & Cole among others.

I took some inspiration from Nduja’s origins and decided to maintain a Mediterranean theme for the recipe - "Pan-fried Halibut on Butter Beans and Nduja with a Lemon and Sage Dressing". I loved the combination of fish and pork in this dish - the butter bean and Sofritto mixture was creamy, soaking up the rich flavours from the Nduja and were well balanced by the "meaty" fish and lemon dressing. I served this with a plate of green, crunchy samphire simply tossed in butter.
 

I would appreciate your support by voting for my recipe here on Unearthed's Facebook page, it will only take you a second!
 

Pan-Fried Halibut on Butter Beans and NDUJA

with a Lemon & Sage Dressing

Ingredients (Serves 4):

Main

4 fresh halibut fillets

200g unsmoked bacon lardons

300g butter beans

90g NDUJA

4 tbsp flat leaf parsley roughly chopped

100g plain white flour

Water

Extra virgin olive oil for shallow frying

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Soffritto

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion finely chopped

1 carrot finely chopped

2 small celery sticks finely chopped

2 garlic cloves crushed

2 sprigs of thyme, leaves only

2 bay leaves

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Dressing

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves finely sliced

Juice of 1 lemon

6-8 fresh sage leaves

Method:

1. Soak the beans overnight or for 12 hours in plenty of cold water.

2. Make the Soffrito: heat the olive oil in a saucepan and gently fry the celery, carrot, onion, garlic, thyme, bay leaves and some salt and freshly ground black pepper for 15 minutes, or until they start to turn golden.

3. Mix in the drained white beans. Do not over stir the beans to avoid them breaking up during cooking. Add enough water to cover the beans, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for about 30-45 minutes or until the beans are tender (you may need to add some more water if the beans are looking dry and not fully cooked). Remove the bay leaves.

4. While the beans are cooking, in a separate saucepan, heat 6 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, add the unsmoked lardons and fry them until brown and lightly crispy. Add the NDUJA and stir until it has melted into the oil. Gently fold it into the white bean mixture. Add half of the chopped flat leaf parsley, add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, and keep warm.

5. Season the white flour generously with salt and freshly ground pepper and lightly coat the halibut fillets, shaking off any excess flour. Heat 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a heavy-based, non-stick frying pan until very hot. Pan-fry the halibut fillets on a medium to high heat for 3 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan and keep warm.

6. Make the dressing: while the halibut fillets are frying, warm up the extra virgin olive oil in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Add the garlic slices and sage leaves for a few minutes until the garlic and sage begins to caramelise and turn golden. Remove the dressing from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Mix well until lightly emulsified.

7. To serve, place the butter bean and Nduja mixture on a plate and top with the pan-fried halibut. Spoon the warm lemon dressing on top and sprinkle the remainder of the chopped flat leaf parsley. Serve immediately.

*Suggestion: I served this with samphire. Blanch some samphire in boiling water for 20 seconds. Drain and toss it in melted butter. Do not add salt as samphire is naturally salty.
 

8. Enjoy!

I would appreciate your support by voting for my recipe here on Unearthed's Facebook page, it will only take you a second!