This summer, I fell in love with wafu pasta. All those incredible Japanese flavour combinations plus a classic Italian staple: what’s not to like? This delicious wafu spaghetti with garlic, lemon and miso salmon is easy, satisfying and ready in 10 minutes. Fork or chopsticks? You decide!
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What is wafu pasta?
It’s hard to define exactly, but it seems to hinge on the combination of Italian pasta (mostly spaghetti) with sauces invented specifically for the Japanese palate. These can include ingredients such as sesame, seaweed, seafood, katsuobushi, mushrooms, soy sauce, mitsuba and shiso. Many wafu pasta sauces are butter, cream or soy based, but it seems pretty trendy for wafu pasta restaurants to offer ragu-style options as well, as in the case of this establishment:
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Anyway, I hope you enjoy my first take on the genre!
recipe: wafu spaghetti with garlic, lemon and miso salmon
Mix up your spaghetti routine with this awesome flavour combination.
ingredients (for 2)
- 1 fillet salmon (skin removed)
- 1 50p sized bunch spaghetti
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tsp miso (can be omitted)
- dash soy sauce
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 tbsp butter
- fresh parsley (try mitsuba if available)
- toasted sesame seeds (preferably black, for contrast)
- 1/4 sheet toasted nori seaweed (optional, as garnish)
method
- Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and salt well. Add the spaghetti.
- Crush or finely chop the garlic while heating the toasted sesame oil in a shallow pan. Briefly fry the garlic, then introduce the salmon.
- As the salmon cooks, break it up into small flakes, adding the lemon juice, soy sauce and, last of all, miso.
- Meanwhile, finely chop the herbs and cut the nori (if using) into thin strands using scissors.
- When the spaghetti is nearly done, drain and toss in the pan with the flaked salmon, adding the herbs, sesame seeds and butter.
- When the butter is melted and the pasta well coated with the other ingredients, divide into dishes and garnish with nori at the last moment.