Recipe | Nduja, pepper & bean stew

The latest recipe from Kym Grimshaw of food blog On The Plate is classic comfort food with a spicy twist. It’s made with nduja, a fiery pork sausage from the Calabria region of Italy which has quickly become one of my favourite ingredients. I love its rich flavour, its soft crumbly texture and its versatility – you can spread it on toast, top pizzas with it, or use it as a base for stews and sauces. Here, it adds a wonderful kick to a hearty yet super-easy supper – perfect as balmy summer evenings give way to the chill of autumn.

Nduja is becoming widely available outside Italy, but if you can’t get hold of it then Kym tells me you can use cooking chorizo instead. The resulting dish will still be super-tasty, but it won’t have quite the same depth of flavour as the nduja version.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 250g of nduja
• 400g can of butter beans, drained and rinsed
• 400g can of chopped tomatoes
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 1 tbsp of sundried tomato paste
• 1 tsp of sweet paprika
• 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• 1 green pepper, roughly chopped
• 1 handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Method

1. Set a pan over a medium heat. When the pan is hot, fry off the nduja until the oils start to release. Remove the nduja from the pan and set aside.
2. Add the pepper and onion to the pan and cook until softened (around 5-8 minutes).
3. Once the onion and pepper are softened, add the butter beans, sweet paprika and tomato paste and cook for a few minutes more.
4. Pour in the tin of chopped tomatoes, followed by an equal measure of water, and crumble the stock cube into the pan. Add the nduja, give everything a stir, and then allow to simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes.
5. Serve up with a scattering of chopped parsley and garlic toasts.

There’ll be more from Kym next month. In the meantime, there’s plenty of seasonal food inspiration over at On The Plate.

Photography by Kym Grimshaw