This pasta recipe is for a friend who told me that sansai pasta is her favorite wafū pasta. She said she had it at a Japanese restaurant, and although I have never been to that restaurant, I imagined that it would taste something like this.
I thought about putting age (fried tofu) in it and also the usual garlic, but I wanted to change it up a bit so this time I used butter. You can’t go wrong with butter. This is for you, Mo!
This pasta can easily be converted to a vegetarian pasta by substituting the dashi powder with kombu dashi.
Ingredients (Servings 2)
One 7 oz (200g) packet of sansai mix
3 tbsp. sake
2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. dashi powder
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
350 grams of spaghetti noodles
3/4 tsp. kosher salt, divided
Directions
1) Boil the pasta as directed on package.
2) Drain the sansai mix and set aside.
3) Heat a frying pan and add the vegetable oil. Coat pan and add the sansai mix and stir fry for approx 2 minutes.
4) Add the sake, soy sauce, sugar, dashi power and stir fry on medium low.
5) When the vegetables have soaked up some of the sauce, add 1 tablespoon of the butter and 1/4 tsp of salt and mix well.
6) When the pasta is done, drain all of the pasta water. I like to wash my pasta at this point and drain all the water again. I think it gives the noodles some bounce.
7) Add the noodles back into the pot, turn on the heat (if you washed the noodles) and add the remaining butter (1 tablespoon) and salt (1/2 teaspoon). Mix well and serve.
8) Heat up the vegetables if necessary and top the pasta with the veggies.
Drain the water from the sansai mix and set aside.
Stir fry the vegetables in vegetable oil for about 2 minutes.
Add the sake, soy sauce, sugar, dashi powder, and continue to stir fry on medium low until some of the sauce has been absorbed by the vegetables. Add 1 tbsp. of the butter and 1/4 tsp. of the salt and mix. Turn off the stove.
Drain the pasta and mix in the remaining butter (1 tbsp) and salt (1/2 tsp.).
Serve half of the pasta and top it with half of the vegetables.
See other Wafū Pasta recipes:
Naomi Kuwabara was born and raised in California but spent many summers in Japan growing up. She has spent time living in Hokkaido and Osaka, both meccas for Japanese cuisine. Her passion is cooking and sharing her experiences cooking Japanese food with others. Her blog Umamitopia is about her experiences cooking Japanese food. Her greatest inspirations are from her mother and grandmother. Her cooking adventures can be found at http://umamitopia.com.
