If you love a quick pasta dish with a fiery kick of heat, then you’ll love our creamy and delicious nduja pasta. Ready to eat in just 20 minutes. It’s perfect for those busy weeknights.
First up, let’s chat about nduja!
If you’re wondering what nduja is, it’s a spicy spreadable sausage from the Calabria region of Italy. It’s like salami paste, super spicy and really packs a punch.
And you pronounce it en-doo-ya.
You can use it to flavour pasta dishes, and because it has a spreadable consistency you can spread it on grilled bread or bruschetta as part of an antipasti platter.
This is one of our favourite quick and flavourful pasta dishes. It literally takes minutes to throw together and cook.
Perfect as a busy day dinner, when you want your food ready fast, with little effort and to taste GOOD!
Making Creamy Nduja Pasta Is A Good Thing, Here’s Why!
Quick to make – our creamy pasta dish is super quick to make, literally 20 minutes effort and you’ll be sat holding bowl of pasta ready to eat.
Super easy – nduja pasta is really simple to make, nothing tricky, just good, rustic food.
Packed with flavor – this is a delicious pasta dish, creamy, bursting with Italian flavours and with a kick from the nduja spiciness.
Creamy Nduja Pasta Recipe
Serves– 4 people
Prep Time– 5 minutes
Cook Time– 15 minutes
Total Time– 20 minutes
Our Most Popular Alternative –Sausage Pasta
Equipment Needed
- Chopping board
- Vegetable knife
- Teaspoon
- Tablespoon
- Large skillet pan or saucepan (for the pasta sauce)
- Large saucepan (for the pasta)
- Wooden spoon (or other cooking spoon)
Ingredients For Nduja Pasta Sauce
Everything you’ll need to make this quick and easy pasta sauce recipe
- Olive oil (you can swap this for butter if you prefer)
- Diced onions – you can use brown or red onion
- Diced peppers (any colour you fancy)
- Chopped cloves garlic (or save time and use garlic powder)
- Nduja – we buy jarred Nduja and just use a couple of teaspoons, but you can adjust this to suit your own taste.
- Tomato Passata – we prefer a smoother sauce so use passata, but you can swap this for chopped tomatoes if you prefer.
- Double cream
- Pasta – we tend to make this with short pasta shapes like fusilli, rigatoni, penne, but you can go with spaghetti or linguine if you prefer.
- Parmesan – grated or shaved for serving.
For full nutrition and calories see recipe card below
How To Make Creamy Nduja Pasta
Step One – sauté the diced onions, peppers and garlic
- Add the olive oil to a skillet pan over a medium heat, throw in the diced peppers, onions and garlic, add a pinch of salt and then fry for 5 minutes, stirring often to avoid them sticking.
Step Two – cook the pasta
- Boil the pasta in large pot of salted water as per the packet instructions. Whilst the pasta cooks, get on with the sauce!
Step Three – make the nduja pasta sauce
- Add a couple of teaspoons (we use heaped as we like the heat) of nduja to the pan with fried peppers and onions. Cook for 1-2 minutes, it will melt into the oil as you stir it.
- Then pour in the passata and add a tsp of dried oregano. Season well with salt and black pepper.
- Bring the sauce to the boil, and then simmer with the lid off until the pasta has finished cooking (around 12 minutes)
- Next, swirl in the double cream, stir to mix it into the nduja pasta sauce.
Step Four – drain the pasta
- Drain the cooked pasta using the colander over the sink. Reserve some of the pasta cooking water, as you can use this to loosen the sauce later if needed.
Step Five – add the pasta to the nduja pasta sauce
- Tip the cooked pasta into the nduja tomato sauce and mix everything together so that all the pasta is coated in the delicious, creamy sauce.
- Scatter with Parmesan cheese if using, then serve straight away, this creamy pasta is far too delicious to wait!
Cooks note! If you’re skipping the parmesan cheese, then scatter over some chopped parsley and a little squeeze of lemon juice.
What To Serve With Nduja Pasta
This creamy spicy pasta recipe is perfect served with a whole range of side dishes – just choose your favourites from the list below!
- Tomato And Cucumber Salad
- Rocket Salad
- Garlic Brioche Bread
- Slices Of Ciabatta With Olive Oil And Balsamic Vinegar
Make Our Creamy Nduja Pasta Your Way
You can take this easy pasta recipe and give it your own twist – add in some extra ingredients or swap some altogether. We’ve popped some tasty ideas below for you to try out!
Skip the cream – make this dish without the cream for a tomato based sauce.
Add some spinach – throw in some baby spinach leaves and let them wilt into the sauce as it simmers.
Add some mushrooms – nduja goes great with mushrooms, just slice some up and fry with the peppers and onions at the beginning.
Turn it into pasta bake – make a quick pasta bake by tipping the pasta into an oven proof dish, scattering with grated mozzarella or blue cheese and melting under a hot grill.
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Creamy Nduja Pasta
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
A delicious, creamy pasta recipe with a spicy nduja kick!
Ingredients
- 320g fusilli pasta
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion - diced
- 1 red pepper - diced
- 2 cloves garlic - finely chopped
- 2 tsp nduja (use more or less depending on your tastes)
- 400g passata
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 150ml double cream
- Pinch salt
- Pinch black pepper
Instructions
Add the olive oil to a skillet pan over a medium heat, throw in the diced peppers, onions and garlic, add a pinch of salt and then fry for 5 minutes, stirring often to avoid them sticking.
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water as per the packet instructions. Whilst the pasta cooks, get on with the sauce!
Add a couple of teaspoons (we use heaped as we like the heat) of nduja to the pan with fried peppers and onions. It will melt into the oil as you stir it.
Then pour in the passata and add a tsp of dried oregano. Season well with salt and black pepper.
Bring the sauce to the boil, and boil with the lid off until the pasta has finished cooking (around 12 minutes)
Next, swirl in the double cream, stir to mix it into the nduja pasta sauce.
Drain the cooked pasta using the colander over the sink.
Tip the cooked pasta into the nduja pasta sauce and mix everything together so that all the pasta is coated in the delicious, creamy sauce.
Scatter with Parmesan cheese if using, then serve straight away, this creamy pasta is far too delicious to wait!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 355Total Fat: 18gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 43mgSodium: 46mgCarbohydrates: 40gFiber: 3gSugar: 4gProtein: 8g
Nutritional content will vary depending on the exact ingredients you use and how careful you are with measuring - this nutritional information is given as a general guide only and may not be accurate - you should always calculate your own nutritional information especially if you have specific dietary requirements.
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More quick pasta recipes to try
- Sardine Pasta
- Philadelphia Pasta With Bacon
- Tuna Pesto Pasta
