’Nduja adds meaty, funky spice to this decadent mac and cheese

Want to know the shortcut to delicious food? For food writer Gurdeep Loyal, the answer is simple: flavorful ingredients. In his latest cookbook, “Flavour Heroes,” he highlights pantry favorites he describes as “an armoury of ingredients that deliver big flavour for little effort.” They include staples such as pecorino Romano, tamarind paste and instant espresso powder, along with some of my personal favorites, including gochujang, miso and toasted sesame oil. But one of the items that I was most intrigued by was ’nduja.

Pronounced en-DOO-yah or in-DOOJ-ah, it’s an ingredient that I’d seen — and ordered — on restaurant menus before, most often at fancy pizzerias. Pretty much all I knew was that it was a type of sausage (it falls into the category of salumi, or Italian cured meats). I couldn’t visually or texturally spot the ingredient in whatever dish I was eating. However, I knew that I enjoyed its spicy, fermented flavor.

The reason it was indiscernible is that unlike other salumi, ’nduja is soft and spreadable, and often practically melts into whatever it’s being cooked with, making its presence known only on the palate.

Hailing from the Calabria region of Italy, ’nduja traditionally consists of just pork, dried Calabrian chiles and salt. (It can come in varying degrees of spiciness.) The process of making it is the same as any salumi, according to Matt Reilly, an ambassador for Tempesta Artisan Salumi, and its signature texture all comes down to fat. “A typical ratio for a hard salami would be like 65 to 75% lean to like 35 to 25% fat,” Reilly said. But with ’nduja, that ratio is reversed. “When you swap the ratio of fat to lean, what ends up happening is that protein, it can’t really bind,” resulting in a product that is as soft as room temperature butter.

“Most people will just take it and spread it on a cracker or crostini or bread or something like that,” Reilly said. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. In the kitchens of Calabria, or the kitchens of anyone in the know, ’nduja is a pantry staple that can be used in numerous ways. You can render the fat to use as a condiment similar to chili oil, incorporate the sausage into mashed potatoes or ice cream, combine ’nduja with butter to laminate pastry for croissants, or use the salumi as the base for pan sauces and soups. “It has a lot of versatility.”

The dish that caught my eye in Loyal’s cookbook incorporates ’nduja in macaroni and cheese with aged cheddar and funky blue cheese. Loyal was inspired by a decadent meal that included choucroute garnie (an Alsatian dish of sauerkraut and sausages) and fondue made with blue cheese. “That sharp cheese and smoky pork combination is imprinted on my taste memory,” he wrote in the recipe headnote. “It’s encapsulated (somewhat less extravagantly) in this easy weekday recipe for classic mac ’n’ cheese — enlivened by the spiced meatiness of ’nduja and the creamy bite of Roquefort.” It’s as if you took the makings of a charcuterie board and turned them into mac and cheese.

In my adaptation of Loyal’s recipe, I increased the amount of ’nduja for even more “spiced meatiness.” You whisk it into the cheese sauce, where the heat melts the ’nduja, turning it into a smooth, homogenous mixture. Then it’s mixed with the cooked pasta, poured into a baking dish, topped with seasoned breadcrumbs and blue cheese, and baked until bubbling and golden. (Though he calls for Roquefort, it tends to be rather potent, so use a milder blue cheese if you prefer.) The result is savory, spicy, funky, decadent and delicious — the polar opposite of bland and boring, and proof that ’nduja is indeed a flavor hero.

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’Nduja Mac and Cheese

Fine salt

8 ounces dried elbow macaroni

2 cups whole milk

1 garlic clove, minced or finely grated

½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

¼ cup all-purpose flour

4½ ounces (½ cup) ’nduja*

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

5½ ounces aged cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1½ cups)

3½ ounces blue cheese, crumbled

6 tablespoons Italian-style/seasoned panko

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 425°F.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, according to the package instructions. Drain the pasta and rinse with cold running water.

In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the milk, garlic and nutmeg.

In a medium (3-quart) saucepan over medium-high heat, melt the butter until foamy. Sprinkle in the flour and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture is blond or very light brown, about 1 minute.

Slowly whisk in the milk mixture, bring to a simmer and cook, whisking constantly and scraping the bottom of the pot so it doesn’t scorch, until the mixture thickens, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Add the ’nduja and mustard, and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add the cheddar, and whisk until melted. Stir in the cooked pasta.

Transfer to a 9-by-9-by-2-inch or similarly sized baking dish. Dollop the blue cheese evenly over the pasta mixture, then sprinkle the panko evenly over the top. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling around the edges and the top is golden brown. Let cool slightly before serving.

Servings: 6 (makes one 9-by-9-inch casserole)

Substitutions: For elbow macaroni, use cavatappi, penne or other short, tubular pasta; or shells. For whole milk, use reduced-fat or low-fat milk. For ’nduja, use finely diced spicy sausage, such as chorizo or pepperoni. Vegetarian? Use a plant-based ’nduja. For dijon mustard, use yellow or deli-style mustard. For aged cheddar, use any style of cheddar. For panko, use other breadcrumbs (plain or seasoned).

* Where to buy: ’Nduja can be found at specialty markets, well-stocked supermarkets or online.

Nutritional information per serving: 566 calories, 37 g fat, 19 g saturated fat, 43 g carbohydrates, 892 mg sodium, 83 mg cholesterol, 20 g protein, 3 g fiber, 5 g sugar.

— Adapted from “Flavour Heroes” by Gurdeep Loyal (Quadrille, 2025)