'Nduja pizza — the recipe
'Nduja is Calabria's spreadable firecracker: a soft, rust-red salame of pork and a frankly reckless amount of Calabrian chili, loose enough to spoon. On a pizza it does what no slice of salami can — it melts. Dotted over the cheese, it dissolves into a pool of spicy, paprika-orange oil that paints the whole pie.
Tomato, fresh mozzarella, blobs of 'nduja — that's the lot, and the heat is the point. Toppings below are weighed per ball and scale with your dough; a little 'nduja goes a long way, so weigh it before your bravado does.
What goes on top
Per pizza, on the default 260 g ball — in layering order:
in teaspoon-sized blobs over the cheese; it melts into spicy oil
a thread over the top
Stretching bigger or smaller? The model rescales with the dough:
| Topping | 200 g ball | 260 g ball | 320 g ball |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crushed tomatoes | 60 g | 80 g | 100 g |
| Fresh mozzarella | 55 g | 70 g | 85 g |
| 'Nduja | 30 g | 40 g | 50 g |
| Fresh basil | 4 leaves | 5 leaves | 6 leaves |
| Extra-virgin olive oil | 4 g | 5 g | 6 g |
The dough
'Nduja is built on Neapolitan dough. Soft, leopard-spotted cornicione. Flour, water, salt, yeast — nothing else. For 4 × 260 g balls:
| Ingredient | Baker's % | For 4 pizzas |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | 630 g |
| Water | 62% | 391 g |
| Salt | 2.8% | 18 g |
| Yeast | 0.23% | 1.4 g |
The yeast is weighed for an example 8 h rise at 21°C — your kitchen disagrees, and that’s the point: set your real schedule in the calculator and it reweighs the pinch.
How it’s done
- Make the dough: 4 × 260 g Neapolitan balls — the calculator weighs the flour, water, salt and yeast for your schedule.
- Stretch each ball on a little flour, pressing the air from the middle out to the rim.
- Top with 80 g crushed tomatoes (crushed by hand, never cooked).
- Top with 70 g fresh mozzarella (torn and well drained).
- Top with 40 g 'nduja (in teaspoon-sized blobs over the cheese; it melts into spicy oil).
- Bake at 450 °C / 842 °F — that is pizza-oven territory; at home, run the oven at full blast on a steel or stone and give it an extra minute or two.
- After the bake: 5 fresh basil leaves.
- After the bake: 5 g extra-virgin olive oil — a thread over the top.
Questions from the counter
What is 'nduja?
A soft, spreadable pork salame from Calabria, shot through with so much local peperoncino that it turns the colour of rust. It's cured but spoonable — closer to a fiery paste than a sliceable sausage — which is exactly why it melts into the pizza instead of sitting on top of it.
Does the 'nduja go on before or after the bake?
Before — dotted over the cheese in teaspoon-sized blobs so the oven melts it into spicy oil that runs across the pie. That's the opposite of a finish meat like mortadella or crudo, which would turn rubbery in the heat; 'nduja wants the heat, because melting is the whole trick.
How hot is it, and can I tame it?
Genuinely hot but fruity rather than vicious — Calabrian chili runs warm and aromatic. Hold the dose if you're cautious; the table scales it with your dough so you can dial it down. To round the edge, a drizzle of hot honey turns it into sweet-heat, or a spoon of cold stracciatella over the top cools each bite — both have their own pages here.
Get the dough
The Neapolitan preset weighs the balls and writes the schedule — mix, rise, ball, stretch, bake.
The clock is a suggestion. The dough is the boss. In bocca al lupo!