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What to do with leftover Nduja

 It's one of those ingredients you sometimes see on the menu in a pizza restaurant (or used to in the days when you could go to a pizza restaurant) but possibly felt too intimidated by the spelling to ask for it (semi-reliable sources tell me it's en-doo-ya). A friend gave me some for my birthday a couple of weeks ago and, having tried it on its own (very tasty but there's quite a lot of raw heat there) and on pizza (very, very good), I wondered what else I could use it for. Of course, I could simply rely on the internet but where's the fun in that?

We had some pasta left over from a lasagne a few days ago - I know it's not really lasagne season but another family birthday means we have to eat all sorts of things which would be far more digestible if he had been born six months earlier or later - so wanted to come up with something simple. Actually, the pasta didn't turn out so well but the sauce was extremely tasty and simplicity itself.

Just four ingredients (six if you're being pedantic): finely chopped shallots, softened in a pan with a little olive oil (I don't count the oil as an ingredient), then add the nduja and cook for a minute or two before adding a slug of white wine (I had a bottle of Domaine Ste-Anne's Cotes du Rhone Blanc to hand - wine, of course, is another thing I don't count as an ingredient) and cook down for a couple of minutes then add finely diced tomato (the best you can get hold of). Cook this over a low-to-medium heat and, when it's stewing a bit - it's good to keep the tomato pieces in tact a little - add some grated Pecorino. That's it. No need for seasoning as the nduja is so powerfully flavoured.

Serve over or mixed in with linguini or whichever pasta you prefer and have plenty of finely grated Grana Padano to hand and a green salad.

Of course, you'll need a glass or two of wine to go with this. Something bright and fruity works well so the Ste-Anne is a definite possibility although we had Chateau Juvenal's Ventoux Blanc 'Ribes de Vallat' which was a good choice.

Another suggestion was to crumble some in with vegetables to be roasted: onions, peppers, that sort of thing, potatoes even.

Any more recommendations would be appreciated. It's rather good but there are only so many pizzas I can eat!
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