Colm O'Gorman's pan-fried hake with nduja, spiced chickpeas and sweet potato puree
Hake is a lovely fish to cook with, and most importantly, it's delicious. It is a soft, white flaky fish, with a mild, slightly sweet flavour. It also takes on other flavours beautifully, which makes it the perfect fish for this week’s recipe. Here, I have pan fried it with a little nduja to add some heat and served it on a bed of silky-smooth sweet potato puree, topped off with spicy chickpeas, and some buttery toasted flaked almonds.
Nduja is a beautiful spicy, spreadable salami sausage from Calabria in the south of Italy. It is a gorgeous ingredient, but if you cannot find any, you could swap it out for some finely chopped chorizo. I highly recommend the nduja though, it really is very special. I get mine in my local Supervalu store, so you should be able to find some locally easily enough. You only need a little for this dish, do not be tempted to add more as you do not want to overpower the hake.
