I’ve always wanted to make a pasta dish using ’nduja where the chilli doesn’t blow your head off. Here, the addition of mascarpone mellows the spiciness of the sausage and creates a smooth, creamy yet rich sauce. The strength of ’nduja varies, so you may need to use a bit more or less – taste it first and adjust accordingly. The acidity in the lemon, meanwhile, brings balance, harmony and zing. This sauce also works well with fresh pici, or dried spaghetti, bucatini, linguine, penne, fusilli and farfalle.

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Prep 10 min

About 75g ’nduja

500g mascarpone

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

Sea salt

450g fresh fettuccine, or dried

4 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Parmesan, finely grated, to finish

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1. Put the ’nduja in a bowl and bring to room temperature, so it becomes malleable. Add the mascarpone and lemon zest, and mix to a smoothish paste. It can now be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to five days.

2. Bring four to five litres of water to a boil in a large pot and add a fistful of salt. Put the ’nduja-mascarpone paste in a pan large enough to hold the cooked pasta easily. Add half a mug (about 120ml) of the salted pasta water and heat gently, stirring, to melt the paste and create a sauce. Take off the heat.

   Loosen the fresh pasta bundles, so they won’t stick together as they cook, then drop into the boiling water and cook for a minute to a minute and a half; if using dried fettuccine, cook for eight to 10 minutes, or according to the packet instructions, until al dente. Drain the pasta and reserve two mugs of its cooking water.

3. Transfer the pasta to the pan of ’nduja sauce and add half a mug (about 120ml) of the reserved water, the lemon juice, chopped parsley and a pinch of salt. Stir vigorously for at least 30 seconds, until the sauce is mixed around the pasta and turns smooth and creamy; if the sauce seems too dry, add splashes of reserved pasta water to loosen it as you stir. You want the strands to slide freely over each other, and for a layer of sauce to cover the bottom of the pan; my visual reference for the sauce is a slow-moving lava field. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if required.

4. Serve on hot plates with a creamy halo of sauce all around the pasta, then finish with grated parmesan. The sauce sucks up the parmesan quickly and can easily become dry, so be sure to have that excess halo around the plated pasta.