'Nduja or 'nduja di Spilinga is a spicy, spreadable pork salumi.

Spilinga is a small town of approx.1500 inhabitants. Spilinga’s main claim to fame is that it is the home of ‘nduja the spicey spreadable Calabrian flavour bomb.

Spilinga lies in the Italian region of Calabria just inland from seaside resorts of Tropea and Capo Vaticano.

'Nduja is graded in two groups, traditionally from the local black Calabrian pig and now also from locally raised white pigs. ‘Nduja made from the traditional black pig is slightly mora expensive than its white pig alternative, I couldn’t taste the difference. Traditionally ‘nduja was made from all the pork trimmings and offal. Now days is ‘Nduja is primarily made from pork trimmings and more economical primal cuts for example back fat, belly etc. Salt and of course sun-dried Calabrian chili peppers, the chilli give 'nduja its characteristic fiery taste, the salt chilli and the maturation process give ‘nduja its preservative qualities. ‘Nduja contains 30% dried pepperoncino chilli so for some people it’s quite aggressive, others a challenge and for many a luxury.

These three ingredients are minced together; more chili is added if needed to correct the colour. The mix is then stuffed into naturel intestinal casings and hand tied with string. From here the ‘nduja is racked up, aged and smoked. Here at Livasi  www.livasi.com the smoking room looks out over a little valley and small river, the rising humidity from this small river is essential during the aging process, with the humidity helping the aging and maturing process. There are twelve active smallgoods companies and a few back yarders all traditionally working with the same age-old process, each company has a smoking room with a window facing northwest in the direction of the volcano, Stromboli.

Ideally any eruption from Stromboli has a chance to add extra character to the ‘nduja. Local timber from oak and olive trees is used during the smoking. After the smoking process the ‘nduja is cured in the aging room, during the aging process ‘nduja loses 12% of its weight. If whiskey has its angel share during its aging process ‘ndujas 12% weight loss could possibly be written off as a spirituel tax? The ‘nduja are then prepared and packaged and sent to the retail market.

Stromboli

Stromboli, the volcanic island that irregularly imparts a little erupted fumarolic gas flavour to all Spilinga’s collective ‘nduja production lies approximately 70 km of the Calabrian coast in the Tyrrhenian Sea and is one of seven islands in the Aeolian island chain.

There’s also a film from 1950 directed by star Italian director Roberto Rossellini and starring Ingrid Bergman. Looking back on the film it had a little Tazan meets Jane déjà vu feel about it, overcoming challenges and difficulties in an unforgiving landscape with a corny ending feeling. But if you are interested in tuna fishing in the Mediterranean then there are long sequences of original fishing praxis and culture from this period documented in this film.,

'Ndjua

The name ‘nduja may stem from the French andouille sausage, the Bourbon dynasty was active here in Calabria and southern Italy in the 1700’s, around the time that 'nduja turned up and according to my local source the apostrophe at the start of an ‘nduja represents a dropped vowel which logically could be an A? “Anduja" which is my French and Italian lesson for today all rolled in to one”.

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'nduja comming of age.

Nduja comes in various sizes, standard is 2kg. manufacturing for the retail market is 6 kg. Upon maturation the 6kg ‘Ndujas are split open and repackaged often in glass jars of varying sizes for the local and international export markets. Livasi when I visited had some 50kg big boys which are available for promotional special occasions. Smaller ‘nduja are also available in the local tourist markets here in Calabria.

So, I’ve just had the pleasure to work here in Calabria for a month and what does one do with ‘nduja, for me it’s the stand alone local flavour identity, many foodie guests are already familia with ‘nduja as it is quite common throughout Europe and other parts of the world.

How to use 'nduja.

Use ‘nduja on pizza, on toasts as a canapé, as a flavour booster in tomato sauce, to flavour small arancini also as a canapé, add it to your risotto, frittata, or pasta. Allow the pork fat and chilli oils to melt into your dish to give a genuine taste of Calabria.

Food for thought. In sicily arancina is the feminine descriptive name, and arancini is the masculin descriptive name used in other parts of Italy, both descriptive names are in plural form.