Words and photo by Alec Morris.
Aldo and I once went into a fine foods providore sort of deli looking for ’nduja. He was about two and a half. As always, I let the little guy do the talking, and he eloquently asked ‘excuse me, do you have any ’nduja?’ The woman at the counter gave him a blank look over rows of imported salami. ‘Do we have any what?’ Without pause, he repeated ‘’nduja’. She looked at me pleadingly like he was speaking gibberish, so I mimed Italian hands for ‘you heard the man, ’nduja!’ And then we both bombarded her with ‘’nduja!’ over and over until she gave up and stalked off.
If you know ’nduja, then you know ’nduja. The spicy, spreadable southern salami that makes everything better. And if you don’t, then you have no business selling cold meats. Silver lining: it was a moment of bonding and solidarity, and we still occasionally yell ‘’nduja!’ back and forth at each other in fond remembrance of frazzling that salami pretender.
For more delicious Italian pasta recipes, grab your copy of Pasta et Al: The Many Shapes Of A Family Tradition by Alec Morris.
Eggplant and pecorino tortelli with ’nduja and tomato
Ingredients
- 1 quantity whole egg and egg yolk dough
- 800 g 1 lb 12 oz whole eggplant (aubergine)
- 40 g 11/2 oz pecorino Romano, grated, plus extra to serve
- 20 g 3/4 oz breadcrumbs juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
- salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- 60 ml 2 fl oz/1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small handful of basil leaves
- 6-8 sage leaves
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 700 ml 231/2 fl oz crushed tomatoes or passata (puréed tomatoes)
- salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 60 g 2 oz ’nduja , (substitute with soft, chopped salami)
Instructions
- Begin with the filling. Bake the eggplant directly on an oven rack at 220°C (430°F) for 20 minutes. Scoop out the flesh and drain any excess water; discard the skin. Blend together with the pecorino, breadcrumbs, lemon juice and zest, and season; transfer to a piping bag with a medium round tip.
- Next, heat the olive oil in a medium-hot frying pan and fry the basil and sage leaves for 5–10 seconds until crispy. Remove the leaves from the pan and drop the heat to low.
- Sauté the garlic for 2–3 minutes, stirring, before adding the crushed tomato. Season with salt and sugar, and add the ’nduja, breaking it up with the spoon as you stir. Cook for 15–20 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened and the tomato has lost its raw flavour.
- While the sauce cooks, roll the pasta dough out into 1 mm (1/16 in) sheets and cut into 6 cm (21⁄2 in) squares. Squeeze a large, grape-sized dollop of filling into each and form into straight-edged tortelli.
- Boil the pasta until done, about 4–5 minutes, then use a slotted spoon to drop them directly into the sauce. Stir well, using a little pasta water to combine.
- Serve with the crispy basil and sage leaves, plenty of grated hard cheese and freshly cracked black pepper.
Notes
The square-edged folds on these tortelli are particularly good at holding sauce, but play around with other tortelli shapes for something different. Cappellacci, really a type of tortelli themselves, are a great substitute.
ON INGREDIENTS
Although it channels Ma’s eggplant (aubergine) parmigiana, we roast
our eggplant instead of frying it, just to avoid an overly oily filling. If you’d prefer to fry them up though, just blot a bit of that oil out before blending.
Pasta et Al: The Many Shapes Of A Family Tradition by Alec Morris (Hardie Grant, 2023).