Nduja, Rosé & Jalapeño Clam Pasta | Big Nood Energy Ep. 3

When jalapeño rosé meets Big Nood Energy.

Remember when everyone was dumping jalapeños in their rosé? I made it better and yeah—there’s pasta involved. Welcome back to Episode 3 of Big Nood Energy. Today we’re giving Vongole a spicy little glow-up with nduja, rosé, and jalapeños.Think: spicy, sweet, sharp, all drenched in a glossy sauce and finished with a crispy pangrattato. The ultimate flavour bomb — and a proper little stunner. Perfect for when you want to impress and it comes together pretty quickly!

Ep. 3 Jalapeno, Rose Nduja Clam Pasta

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Nduja, Jalapeno & Rose Clam Pasta

Time: 30 mins (plus soaking time)

Serves: 2 (I love clams so have a lot of them in the recipe) Difficulty: Medium (but fast hands = key)

Ingredients

For the Pasta:

• 60ml olive oil

• 5 small garlic cloves, smashed

• 50g nduja

• 150ml rosé

• 1kg clams

• Pinch of chilli flakes (optional)

• 10 jalapeños

• 2 big knobs of butter

• Handful of chopped parsley

• 200g pasta (spaghetti or bucattini)
  

For the Pangrattato:

• Drizzle of olive oil

• 40g breadcrumbs

• Zest of ½ a lemon

• Salt to taste

Method

1. Purge the Clams:Soak clams in salted water for 30 minutes to clean them out. Then rinse with fresh water and ditch any broken ones.

2. Garlic Infusion:Gently heat olive oil with smashed garlic cloves for 7 minutes. Remove the garlic — keep the oil.

3. Nduja Time:Add nduja to the garlic oil and stir until it's all spicy and glossy. Crank the heat right up, toss in a pinch of chilli flakes if your like me and love spicy.

4. Clam Slam:When the pan is smoking hot, add all the clams and rosé. Slam a lid on for a minute, then remove it and start fishing out the clams as soon as they open. Park them on a plate.

5. Sauce Base:Drop 5 sliced jalapeños into the nduja sauce, lower the heat, and melt in one knob of butter. Keep it ticking while you cook the pasta. You may need to add some water if the sauce gets too low while the pasta is cooking.

6. Pasta Party:Boil pasta in unsalted water (trust, the clams are salty enough). Cook it for 1 minute less than the packet says.

7. Pick + Prep:Pick most of the clams from their shells — save the pretty ones for plating. Stir the picked clams and another knob of butter into the sauce when there’s 2 mins left on the pasta.

8. Breadcrumb Banger:In another pan, fry breadcrumbs in olive oil with lemon zest and salt until golden (but not too dark — they keep cooking off-heat!).

9. Plate Up:Toss pasta through the sauce and let cook for a couple of mins. Plate up with clams in their shells, scatter over the crispy breadcrumbs and parsley, and slap two jalapeños on top of each portion. Serve immediately.

Top Tips:

• Watch the salt levels make sure to wash your clams in fresh water after purging — Also check sauce salt levels throughout.

• If you want to take your time picking through the clams, just kill the heat on the sauce. Sort yourself out, then crank it back up when you’re ready and cook the pasta at the same time.

• Take your pangrattato off the heat just before it’s done — it'll darken on its own.