Serves 6
garlic 2 cloves
olive oil
mussels 1kg, cleaned
white wine 1 glass (70ml)
tomato passata 4 tablespoons
’nduja 200g
cooked chickpeas 500g, or good jarred or tinned ones, rinsed and drained
cod fillet 6 pieces (around 200g each)
fresh parsley a small handful
extra virgin olive oil a little, to finish
’Nduja from Calabria – soft, spicy, spreading salami made with local red chillies – is one of the latest Italian ingredients to jump almost overnight from something that was little known outside the region of production, to a fashionable ingredient on every menu. I have always found it a fascinating flavour and texture, which works brilliantly with chickpeas and seafood. If you are using jarred or tinned chickpeas, try to buy organic ones, or read the labels to check there are no unwanted ingredients such as thickeners.
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. 2 Finely chop one of the cloves of garlic. 3 Heat a little olive oil in a large pan, put in the garlic and sauté it briefly, making sure you don’t let it burn. 4 Add the mussels and the white wine. 5 Cover with a lid and cook over a high heat until the mussels open. 6 Discard any that don’t open. 7 Lift the mussels from the cooking liquid and keep to one side, then add the tomato passata to the pan. 8 Break up the ’nduja with your fingers and add to the pan with the chickpeas, then continue to cook until you have a sauce consistency. If you feel it isn’t thickening enough, crush a few of the chickpeas and this will help.
9 Take half the mussels from their shells (keep the rest for garnish) and add to the pan, then transfer all the contents to an ovenproof dish. 10 Heat a little more olive oil in a large sauté pan. 11 Season the cod and pan-fry on the skin side only until golden. 12 Lift out and place on top of the mussel and ’nduja sauce. 13 Garnish with the reserved mussels in their shells, and put into the preheated oven for about 5 minutes, until the cod has cooked through. 14 Meanwhile, put the remaining clove of garlic on a chopping board and crush it into a paste with the back of a large knife. 15 Put the parsley leaves on top and chop finely, so that the garlic and parsley combine and release their flavours into each other. 16 Remove the dish from the oven, sprinkle with the parsley and garlic and and a little extra virgin olive oil and serve.
