Match of the week

Nduja and a super-Tuscan red

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on April 12 2021 at 10:28

I don’t often get inspiration from chefs when it comes to food and wine pairing - you’d think they’d be into wine but they often aren’t - but Theo Randall’s suggestion of a super-Tuscan red with his dish of roast sausages with borlotti beans and nduja sauce was spot on.

Having posted the recipe, which comes from Theo’s new book, The Italian Deli Cookbook, I finally got round to cooking it over the weekend. Although the key ingredient, nduja, comes from Calabria it was absolutely delicious with a rich, smooth 2019 Grattamacco Bolgheri Rosso from Berry Bros and Rudd, a blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and sangiovese. Unfortunately it already seems to be out of stock* at BBR who originally sent it to me but you can find it at Majestic, tannico.co.uk or wineeye.com by the case.

Similar Tuscan reds or rich full-bodied reds from the Maremma would also work or you could go for a southern Italian red like an aglianico, primitivo or nero d’avola. (There’s an interesting post on Calabrian wine here.)

Nduja, if you’re not familiar with it, is a soft Calabrian sausage with quite a spicy chilli kick. You can buy it in many Italian delis. Waitrose now stocks it as part of their Cooks Ingredients range

* a general problem at the moment. Wines seem to be flying as soon as they come in so if you read about something you like the sound of don’t hang around!

Recipe photograph ©Lizzie Mayson

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