Tomato Nduja Sauce
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Make this spicy, flavorful Tomato Nduja Sauce in just 25 minutes to toss with your favorite pasta! Nduja is a spicy spreadable pork sausage from the Calabrian region of Italy. It’s full of flavor and one of my favorite ingredients to incorporate into Italian recipes. Try it in this easy pasta sauce recipe and after one bite, you’ll fall in love!
Why you’ll love this recipe
My first time tasting nduja was at Trust Restaurant in San Diego, and it was love at first bite. This spicy spreadable salami is so flavorful. It’s great spread on toasted bread, cooked into scrambled eggs, or dolloped on top of a pizza. But my favorite way to serve it is in a pasta sauce!
My first time making an nduja pasta sauce was in this recipe for creamy nduja pasta. Made with a base of butter, heavy cream, and nduja, this pasta dish is rich, creamy and oh-so-delicious!
Next, I wanted to try my hand at making a more traditional tomato sauce with nduja, and that’s when this recipe was born. After testing and perfecting the recipe, I’m now confident that you’ll want to replace traditional marinara sauce with tomato nduja sauce in all of your favorite pasta recipes. This truly is the best sauce and here’s why!
- The flavor is amazing! The bright, bold tomato flavor from passata, combined with the spicy flavor of nduja is already perfection. Then the flavors are taken to another level with a combination of garlic, onion, Italian seasoning, and salty Pecorino Romano cheese. Simple ingredients combined to make an incredibly flavorful sauce!
- You can use it in place of marinara in any pasta recipe. This smooth, flavorful sauce can be tossed with spaghetti, made into baked ziti, used in lasagna, or tossed with raviolis. The options are endless when it comes to the ways you can use this sauce!
- It’s easy to make! You don’t need all day to create an incredibly flavorful sauce, just 25 minutes on the stovetop and this sauce is ready to go.
Ingredients
Here I explain the best ingredients for this orecchiette with sausage recipe, what each one does, and substitution options. For the exact ingredient measurements, see the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Red onion – in the Calabrian region of Southern Italy, where nduja comes from, it’s common to find red onion used in place of yellow onion in tomato sauces. It has a slightly sharper and sweeter taste that pairs perfectly with the other flavors in this sauce.
- Kosher salt
- Garlic cloves
- Tomato passata – this strained and pureed tomato sauce has a smooth texture and is made from fresh, in-season tomatoes. It gives the sauce the bold tomato flavor that we’re looking for in this sauce. It should be widely available near the pasta sauces at the grocery store. If you can’t find it, you can blend whole San Marzano tomatoes in a blender, then strain them through a fine mesh strainer to make your own tomato passata at home.
- Italian seasoning – click the link for my homemade seasoning blend that’s easy to mix up in 5 minutes. Or purchase pre-made seasoning on the spice aisle at the grocery store.
- Granulated sugar – this helps balance out the acidity and salt in the sauce.
- Nduja (spreadable salami) – nduja is a cured meat, that’s made up of more fat than traditional salami, which makes it spreadable. The Tempesta Nduja I used in this recipe (and that you can easily buy on Amazon) is made of just pork, Calabrian chili peppers, and sea salt. I love that the ingredients are simple, but the taste is bursting with flavor. You can also look for Nduja at Italian markets, or specialty grocery stores in your area.
- Pecorino Romano cheese – this hard, salty cheese from Italy is made with sheep’s milk. While it’s similar to parmesan cheese, it does have a stronger, more salty flavor that pairs well with the other flavors in this dish. If you can’t find Pecorino Romano cheese, you can replace it with fresh grated parmesan, but I would recommend you taste the pasta sauce before serving it to see if you need to add salt, since parmesan is not as salty as Pecorino Romano.
- Ziti – or your favorite pasta.
Instructions
I’ve included step by step photos below to make this recipe super easy to follow at home. For the full detailed recipe instructions, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
If you’re planning to serve the sauce immediately with pasta, you’ll want to cook the pasta first. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil on the stove, add the pasta and cook according to the package directions. Remove one cup of the pasta cooking water from the pot before draining the pasta and setting it aside.
Alternatively, you can make the nduja sauce ahead of time and store it in the fridge or freezer until you’re ready to serve it with your favorite pasta dish.
- Cook onions and garlic. Pour olive oil in a large skillet on the stove over medium-high heat. Add minced onions. Season with salt and cook for 4 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook for an additional minute.
- Pour in the passata and season. Pour the tomato passata in the skillet. Add 1/4 cup water to the empty jar of passata, shake it up and pour it into the skillet, making sure you get all of the tomato goodness out of the jar. Season the sauce with salt, Italian seasoning and sugar.
- Add the nduja sausage. Let it melt into the sauce while you stir it. This should take 1-2 minutes. Once the sauce is smooth, you can let it cool and store it in the fridge or freezer. If you’re serving the sauce immediately, follow the instructions below.
- Add the pasta and cheese. Add cooked pasta to the sauce with 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water. Toss to coat, then add grated pecorino romano cheese and stir to combine. Serve immediately with additional fresh-grated cheese on the side for sprinkling over the pasta.
Ways to serve it
You’ll see the sauce tossed with cooked ziti pasta in this post, but there are so many different ways to serve it! You can toss it with any of your favorite pasta shapes, like spaghetti, pappardelle, fettuccine, or rigatoni.
You can also make baked ziti with this nduja sauce. I recently hosted a dinner party and served this dish and it was a huge hit! To make it, follow the instructions in this post. Once you’ve tossed the sauce with the cooked ziti, place it in a 9 inch by 13 inch baking dish.
Cover with 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese and 1 cup grated parmesan cheese. Mix 1 cup ricotta cheese with 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, then dollop it on top of the dish. Bake at 425°F, uncovered, for 15 minutes. So delicious and so easy to make! Perfect for a dinner party, because you can prep the entire dish ahead of time, then bake it just before your guests arrive.
You can also use this sauce anytime you would use marinara sauce or pizza sauce. Try it on this pan pizza, served with these Italian meatballs, or use it to level-up this meatball sub.
It’s also a great dipping sauce for pepperoni pizza rolls, arancini, or toasted raviolis.
Storage and reheating
You can store this tomato nduja sauce in the refrigerator for up to 7 days, or the freezer for up to 6 months. Whether you’re storing it in the fridge or freezer, you’ll want to let it cool at room temperature before transferring it to airtight containers for storage.
If you plan to freeze the sauce, you’ll want to leave at least 1 inch of space open at the top of the storage container. This will allow the sauce to expand in the freezer.
If you’ve been storing the nduja sauce in the freezer, I recommend moving it to the refrigerator for 24-36 hours to defrost. If you don’t have that much time, place the sealed container of sauce in the sink and run cold water over the container until the sauce is thawed.
More pasta recipes
Looking for more delicious pasta recipes? Check out these other blog favorites!
Tomato Nduja Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried ziti, or another type of pasta
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ cup minced red onion
- ¾ teaspoon Kosher salt, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 24.5 ounce bottle tomato passata
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, click link for recipe
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 6 ounces nduja
- 4 tablespoons Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated
Instructions
Cook the pasta. (optional – see notes below)
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the dried ziti and cook until al dente, about 2 minutes less than the time on the box directs. Remove one cup of the cooking water from the pot before draining the pasta and setting it aside.
Prepare the sauce.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on the stove over medium-high heat.
- Add the minced onions, season with ¼ teaspoon salt and cook for 4 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for an additional minute.
- Add passata, and make sure to use up all of the pureed tomato in the bottle by adding ¼ cup water to the empty bottle, placing the lid on the bottle, shaking it up, then adding the tomato-water mixture to the skillet.
- Bring the sauce to a simmer, season with the remaining ½ teaspoon salt, Italian seasoning and sugar. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 12-15 minutes.
- Add the nduja, and use a spatula to stir it into the sauce. Cook, stirring constantly, until the nduja is fully emulsified and incorporated in the sauce, about 2 minutes.
- Either store the sauce in the fridge or freezer, or serve it immediately with pasta.
- If serving with pasta immediately: add the cooked ziti to the sauce, along with ¼ cup of the pasta cooking water. Toss to coat. Add 2 tablespoons of the cheese and stir to combine. Add more pasta cooking water if needed.
- Serve with the remaining cheese on the side for sprinkling over the pasta after it’s served.
Notes
- The nutritional information provided is for one cup of the sauce without the pasta or cheese.
- This sauce can be used in place of marinara sauce, pasta sauce, or pizza sauce in a variety of recipes. You can make it ahead and store it in the fridge or freezer, or immediately toss it with cooked pasta, per the instructions above.
- You can store the sauce in the refrigerator for up to 7 days, or the freezer for up to 6 months.
- When tossing it with pasta, feel free to use your favorite type of pasta, ziti is an option, but you could also use spaghetti, pappardelle, cavatappi, or fettuccine.
Nutrition Facts
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