'nduja

noun

'ndu·​ja en-ˈdü-yə  ən- 

variants or nduja

: a spicy fermented Italian pork sausage with a spreadable texture

The pork in the recipe here comes in the form of 'nduja, a spreadable chilli-spiked sausage from Calabria.

—Christine Salins

It's offered as a side dish, but I can happily make lunch of this supremely simple combo of hummus, fresh bread, pickled veggies and 'nduja—a soft, spreadable cured pork spiked with Calabrian chiles.

—Nikki Buchanan

Because it is so soft and practically melts when warm, it's possible you've enjoyed 'nduja in dishes before, without being able to pinpoint exactly where that ever-so-slightly funky, meaty taste was coming from.

—Elazar Sontag

The nduja, which had melted into the sauce, was a background note rather than an assertively spicy presence.

—Anna Burnside

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Italian dialect (Calabria), borrowed from Old French andoille, endoille "sausage made from pork intestines stuffed with chopped and seasoned meat, fat and innards" — more at andouille

Note: The Calabrian form, also spelled ndugghia, has counterparts in other dialects of southern Italy, as Neapolitan nnoglia, L'Aquila (Abruzzi) angojja, and Sicilian núgghia. The version of the sausage spiced with peperoncini is characteristic of the Monte Poro plateau in southern Calabria, especially the commune of Spìlinga. Despite the late print record of the southern Italian variants—the form ndugghia is apparently first attested in 1890—adaptation of the French loanword may date as far back as the Norman domination of southern Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In the Liber de Coquina, a recipe book probably composed in southern Italy in the thirteenth century, the French word is latinized as indoliis (ablative plural). See discussion and references in Rocco Luigi Nichil, "La 'nduja. Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'assaggiate," Peccati di lingua: Le 100 parole italiane del Gusto (Rubbettino, 2015), pp. 188-91.

First Known Use

1996, in the meaning defined above