Colm O'Gorman: This beef and nduja burger is delicious — and cost-effective too

Irish beef ranks as amongst the best in the world. It is a fabulous ingredient. For sustainability reasons, I tend to eat less of it these days, but it remains one of my favourite things to cook. 

A perfectly cooked dry-aged Irish Angus rib-eye steak is perhaps my favourite beef dish, but this burger comes a close second. It is of course also a lot less expensive, so you can make these burgers for the family without breaking the bank.

I use a low-fat minced beef for these burgers. I would generally go for a 12% fat mince, lean meat can give you a rather dry burger, but the nduja adds enough fat to make this burger juicy and full of flavour.

In addition to the beef, Nduja is the other key ingredient in this burger. This beautiful spicy, spreadable salami sausage from Calabria in the south of Italy is now readily available in local supermarkets, both Supervalu and Lidl stock it. 

I have previously featured nduja in a few recipes in this column, such as my Pan Pizza with Nduja, Roasted Red Pepper and Parmesan and my super quick Spaghetti with Nduja, Lemon and Fennel. If you get some nduja to make these burgers, you should have enough left over to try the pizza and the spaghetti. You will find both recipes on ieFood.

The toppings are important to this dish. As you will see there are a few, so take care not to overload the burger and make it impossible to handle and eat. They all add lovely flavours, and work beautifully together, so do include them all. 

For convenience, I used shop bought roasted peppers. They are available in most supermarkets. Lidl do lovely ones that are also very good value.

This recipe serves four.

Beef and nduja burger

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

You can make these burgers for the family without breaking the bank

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 50 mins

Cooking Time

 6 mins

Total Time

 56 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Irish

Ingredients

• 400g Irish Angus minced beef

• 80g nduja

• Salt and pepper

• 2 brioche burger buns

• Toppings:

• Chorizo, about 15g per person

• Fresh lettuce

• Roasted red pepper

• 8 cherry tomatoes

• Vintage Irish cheddar

• Thinly sliced onion

Method

1. Begin by making the burgers. Cut the nduja into small pieces. As it is a paste, they will stick together a bit as you cut them, but you will mix it through the mince so do not worry about that.

2. Put the beef into a bowl, season with some flaky sea salt, about a teaspoon is plenty and a good grind of black pepper. If you are using fine sea salt, remember to use half the amount, just half a teaspoon.

3. Scatter the nduja over the top of the beef and then use your hands to combine it with the beef. Just rub it in for a few minutes until it is reasonably well mixed. You will still see the pieces of nduja in the beef, that is fine. Take care to not over work the mixture or the burger will be a little tough.

4. Divide the burger mixture into four equal portions and roll them into balls. Place one of the balls on a clean work surface, flatten it into a patty about 2cm thick and shape it with your hands so that it has even edges.

5. Repeat to form four burgers. Place them on a plate and pop them into the fridge for about thirty minutes.

6. Finely slice the chorizo and heat a heavy based frying pan over a high heat. When it is very hot, add the chorizo and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the chorizo until it is crisp and golden and then remove it from the pan and set to one side.

7. Leave any oil from the cooked chorizo in the pan. You will use that to cook the burgers.

8. Wash and dry some fresh lettuce. Use whatever variety you like best. I tend to avoid iceberg lettuce as I think it lacks flavour. I usually go for either little gem or butterhead lettuce. I have also used some baby spinach leaves instead of lettuce when that was all I had in the fridge and that works beautifully.

9. Cut some roasted red pepper to give you four pieces, each about the size of the base a burger bun. Thinly slice some cheddar and some fresh onion. Wash and thinly slice the cherry tomatoes.

10. Take the burgers from the fridge and return the pan to the heat. Add the burgers to the pan when it is hot and cook them for two to three minutes each side.

11. You want the meat to be seared and caramelised when you turn it over. I use a high/medium heat. Layer the cheese on top of the burgers when you are cooking the second side so that it melts a little as the burgers cook.

12. Lightly toast the buns while the burgers are cooking. When the meat is ready, build the burgers. Place some lettuce on the base of each burger bun, and then add some roasted red pepper.

13. The cheese topped burger patty goes next, and then some slices of cherry tomatoes. Roughly chop the crispy chorizo and scatter that over the tomatoes before adding the thinly sliced onion. Finish off with some tomato ketchup.

14. Serve with chips or a salad.