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First, Nduja Artisans is a new project from the family that owns Harlem Avenue’s Ristorante Agostino. Tony Fiasche’s 84-year-old grandparents still make it back in the old country, but now Fiasche (who used to cook for private events at Publican Quality Meats) and his father, Agostino, are producing it in a USDA-licensed factory in near-west-suburban Franklin Park. They’re grinding it with back fat, trim, and picnic shoulder and using imported Calabrian chiles, and they hang the artificially cased chubs for about three weeks to cure, which gives their nduja a nice tanginess (they’re also working on a natural casing variant that ages for ten to 12 weeks). This one almost burns your retinas to gaze upon, and it leaves its red calling card on everything it touches. It’s highly emulsified, the most spreadable of the three, but suspended with tangible chile flakes, which give it a sort of pleasant chewiness. If you like it spicy, this is the one for you. You can search for it among the forest of salumi at Eataly, where it sells for $27.80 a pound, or you could go to Publican Quality Meats, where they have it for $25 per chub, or $13 for a half.
Speaking of PQM, they make ndjua there too. You can see by the coloration that it’s not as spicy as ‘Nduja Artisans’, but it’s nothing to sniff at. Dense and meaty, it’s a little less spreadable, almost sliceable. It’s my least favorite of the trio, but it isn’t bad at all.
