Aishling Moore: How to make hake with chickpeas and nduja

Nduja is deeply intense in flavour, so a little of this cured meat goes a very long way, especially when paired with seafood.

Weekend Food Marking: XX Jillian Bolger: Goldie: Aishling Moore: 27/03/26 Hake with chickpeas and ndjua: Picture Chani Anderson

Sat, 09 May, 2026 - 01:00

Aishling Moore

Aishling Moore is head chef and co-owner of Goldie, the award-winning seafood restaurant in Cork city. A pioneer of gill-to-fin cooking in Ireland, and author of cookbook The Whole Catch, she's won multiple awards for her cooking and writing.

Nduja is a spicy and spreadable sausage from the southern region of Calabria in Italy. Cured meats and sausages are such handy ingredients to have in the fridge and vital to my cooking at home, adding so much umami to dishes.

Made by curing, fermenting, and cold-smoking ground pork — usually a mix of shoulder, belly and fat with fiery Calabrian chilli peppers — the high fat content of 30-50% of the total mix gives the sausage its distinctive buttery texture.