The Weeknight Kitchen · Italian · about an hour, mostly simmering

’Nduja Rigatoni

Name: 'Nduja Rigatoni
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 120 ml olive oil; 150 g red onion; 128 g 'nduja; 700 g tomato passata; 454 g mezzi rigatoni; 100 g Pecorino Romano; 10 g fresh basil; 3 g Diamond Crystal kosher salt; 1 g black pepper; Salt for the pasta water

A long, lazy simmer from a short list: red onion melted in olive oil, a whole chub of 'nduja dissolved into it, a bottle of passata, and mezzi rigatoni to catch the sauce in every tube. Torn basil at the end, sharp pecorino over the top.

~1 hr mostly hands-off 1 pan + pasta pot

Spoon cost

Time ●●○○○ Anytime

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Let the 'nduja dissolve completely. Stir it into the softened onions until there's no lump left and the oil has turned brick-red — that fat is the sauce. Then give the passata its full simmer: 30 minutes is the floor, an hour is better. The sauce goes from bright and thin to deep, glossy, and clinging.

Before you start

Get these into the state the recipe asks for first — the steps that use them won't wait.

Onion chopped and the 'nduja squeezed out of its casing into a bowl — it goes in the moment the onions are ready — and the spread is too soft to peel, so snip the casing and squeeze it out like toothpaste
Pecorino grated and a measuring cup parked by the colander — the sauce is finished with reserved pasta water, and it's gone if you don't catch it before you drain

Method

Cook's notes

How hot is your 'nduja? Tempesta's turned out milder than I expected — a gentle warmth rather than a kick. 'Nduja varies a lot by maker; if yours is a fiercer one, start with about two-thirds of the chub and stir in more at the end if the sauce can take it. Whatever the brand, it's cured pork and Calabrian chili whipped into a spreadable paste, and it melts into oil the way butter does.

Want it hotter, and still Calabrian? Add more of the same chili, not a different one. Stir a spoonful of Tutto Calabria Crushed Calabrian Chili Peppers (10-oz jar, in oil — Whole Foods, Italian delis, Amazon) in with the 'nduja so it melts into the fat the same way: 1 tsp is noticeable, 1 tbsp is serious. Dried Calabrian peperoncino flakes bloomed in the oil with the onion do the same job.

The oil isn't a mistake. Half a cup sounds like a lot for one onion, but it's the body of the sauce — the 'nduja's own fat joins it, and the passata's acidity balances it out. Don't cut it back.

Pecorino, with or without peppercorns. The night I made this, the only pecorino in the house was a Pecorino Pepato — a Sicilian-style pecorino studded with whole black peppercorns (pepato just means "peppered") — and it was excellent here. Plain Pecorino Romano is the everyday pick; either way, grate it fine so it melts into the sauce rather than sitting on top.

Why mezzi rigatoni? Short, ridged, hollow — the sauce gets inside the tubes as well as on them, which is the whole pleasure of this dish. Rigatoni, paccheri, or penne rigate all work; smooth shapes won't hold it as well.

Make-ahead: the sauce keeps 4 days in the fridge and freezes well. It thickens as it sits — loosen with pasta water when you reheat.

Easier, if you like

Pre-chopped onion from the produce case (about 1 cup) skips the knife work — red or yellow both work here.

Contains pork and dairy; easy to make gluten-free

Gluten-free: use a gluten-free ridged short pasta — Barilla makes a GF penne rigate that holds sauce well. Save the cooking water as usual.

No pecorino: Parmesan is milder and less salty; you may want a touch more salt in the sauce.

Can't find 'nduja: there's no true stand-in for the melt-away texture, but 115 g (4 oz) of hot Italian sausage, casing removed and broken up fine, plus 1 tsp Calabrian chili paste, gets you a cousin of this sauce.