Mentaiko Pasta

One of my guilty pleasures? Mentaiko. Roe from cod or pollack salted and marinated in a chili spice. Simply as it is or grilled and served with rice. It's nice spread on garlic toast, or one of our favorites, mentaiko pasta.

I love angel hair pasta for this dish. While the water is coming to a boil scrape the mentaiko out of its sac. Cook the angel hair pasta until al dente.

Put the pasta in a bowl, add the mentaiko and some mayonnaise and butter. Stir until combined and serve immediately.

If you are looking for a healthful version, use extra virgin olive oil instead of the mayonnaise and butter.

Shirasu Pasta しらすパスタ

Yesterday's post was on ikura pasta. We were so happy with having pasta and Japanese ingredients that our next version was shirasu pasta. Shirasu are tiny anchovies that have been quickly blanched in salt water. Usually we have it on a bowl or rice as shirasudon. Or, sometimes we'll grate some daikon to make daikon oroshi and add the shirasu to it.

This pasta was simply some angel hair pasta with shirasu and extra virgin olive oil. Again, easy, quick, and delicious.

I would have liked to have added some pickled takana leaves or nozawa if I had some on hand to add some color. But this was a spur of the moment throw together dish and it wasn't necessary. This dish went very nice with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

You may also want to consider making an uni pasta.

Ikura Pasta いくらパスタ

Italian and Japanese ingredients often make for the best fusion cuisine. Part of it must be the simplicity of the ingredients so when they are put together it is never too much on the palate. It is so popular that there are restaurants that do outstanding Japanese pastas like Basta Pasta NYC. 

One of the first things that I thought was the perfect combination of Italian and Japanese ingredients was mentaiko pasta. Spicy cod roe with pasta, usually angel hair, sometimes topped with butter, or mayonnaise. Really good and addictive.

When we have ikura in the house we usually have it over rice. But after a day or two of ikura donburi we get the craving for a change-up and putting it over tagliatelle seemed like a good idea. It was. To this I only added some good quality extra virgin olive oil. Simple and delicious. Life doesn't have to be complicated.

If you want to make uni pasta it is quite easy. Here are directions for an uni pasta we make quite often at home.

Uni Pasta うにパスタ

When chef Edward Higgins was at the Four Seasons Marunouchi near Tokyo Station he served an uni pasta that was so good I wanted to lick the plate clean. I believe he is now at the Four Seasons Palo Alto. Not sure if the uni pasta is on his menu but I started to make it at home, inspired by Edward.

Let me add that whenever I see uni pasta on a menu I order it but over the years I have never had one as delicious.

Saute some garlic and onions in olive oil. Deglaze the pan with white wine. Incorporate some tomato paste and at the last minute add the uni. Toss over angel hair pasta.