Mentaiko Pasta is easy to make and delicious. It's a pollock / cod roe pasta that's full of flavor but still delicate All you need is angel hair pasta or spaghetti, mentaiko (preserved cod roe), butter, and soy sauce. Top the pasta with nori right before serving!
This might look like a fancy pasta but it's really easy!
Mentaiko Pasta one of those dishes you can prepare for friends and family on a whim and everyone will be like whoaaa ^_^
Mentaiko Pasta falls into the category of wafu cuisine which includes Japanese takes on western dishes. So this is Japanese-style pasta. It's wafu pasta. It's Japanese pasta. To me, it feels similar to how Hawaii's local food is inspired by other cuisines.
This pasta is bright and and lively with the flavors of briny mentaiko. The pasta "sauce" is made of mentaiko, butter, and soy sauce...that's it! You don't need to cook the sauce. Toss the cooked pasta in a bowl and the sauce pretty much makes itself.
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Ingredients
Here's what you'll need:
- Angel hair pasta (or spaghetti) - spaghetti is actually more common for this recipe, but we love the delicate texture of angel hair. Any long and thin pasta will work for this recipe.
- Mentaiko - we buy mentaiko (which is seasoned and preserved pollock/cod roe) from the Japanese market. Read more about mentaiko in the sections below.
- Soy sauce - we typically use Kikkoman brand soy sauce. The Aloha brand is also very popular in Hawaii, it's a less salty so you'd have to use a little more.
- Unsalted butter - our default butter is salted butter, but we want unsalted butter for this recipe. Why? Because the mentaiko salty and so it the soy sauce. So there's already more than enough salty to go around 🙂
- Nori - we use whole sheets of nori and tear it up into small pieces. You can also use precut strips of nori (also called shredded nori) but I like the look and texture of hand-torn pieces.
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Let's get cooking!
Gently remove the mentaiko from the sacks and put it a mixing bowl.
Set aside one spoonful of mentaiko (we’ll use this to top the dish right before serving).
Add butter and soy sauce to the mixing bowl.
Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Then drain and reserve ¼ cup of the cooking water.
Pour that cooking water into the mixing bowl with the mentaiko, butter, and soy sauce.
Then add the pasta. Use tongs to gently mix everything together.
The butter will melt and mix with the mentaiko and soy sauce. The starch in the pasta water helps everything bind everything together.
Divide into two bowls. Top with the torn nori and the spoonful of mentaiko we put aside in Step 1. Eat and enjoy ^_^
Mentaiko
Mentaiko is pollack / cod rod that is seasoned and preserved.
It's tastes bright and brine-y, very much "of the sea" and packed with umami.
You can purchase mentaiko at Japanese markets. It's stored the freezer and/or refrigerated section. Mentaiko usually sold in small packages with two mentaiko sacks (pictured above). We purchase a few packs at a time and store them in the freezer. To use, just defrost the mentaiko the refrigerator overnight.
There are many ways to enjoy mentaiko. For mentaiko pasta, we remove the mentaiko from the sack. It's easy to do.
First, place the sack on a cutting board. Depending how thick the sack is, you can slice it open and scoop out the mentaiko or you can make a cut at one end and squeeze out all the mentaiko.
The sack we used for this recipe was really thin, and all the mentaiko came out easily once I cut a slit running along the length of the sack.
Substitutions and Variations
Here are a couple ideas to get started:
- Olive Oil - if you feel that the butter overshadows the mentaiko, replace some or all of the butter with olive oil. The olive oil allows the mentaiko flavor shine through more clearly (but it will be a less buttery dish 🙂
- Shiso - top with thinly sliced shiso leaves. You can do this in addition to or in place of nori. I love the flavor nori adds, so my personal preference is adding shiso in addition to nori.
You can also play around with the proportions of sauce to noodles, it's all about personal preference.
Equipment
All you need is a mixing bowl to mix the "sauce" ingredients and a pot to boil the pasta.
Storage
Leftovers keep 2-3 days in the refrigerator. Store it in a sealed container. To reheat, add a splash of water to the pasta and microwave in 30 second increments till hot.
This pasta is best fresh, and we never have leftovers 😉
Top tip
Buy multiple packages of mentaiko and store it in the freezer! It'll keep for months. Even though mentaiko sounds fancy, this is really a pantry pasta.
We store packages of mentaiko in the freezer and defrost it when we want to make this recipe. A quick and easy meal in just minutes!
FAQ
No. The mentaiko is preserved and does not need to be cooked. Just toss it with the pasta and the heat of the pasta (along with butter and soy sauce) will help melt it into a sauce.
No. It has to be mentaiko. Masago, tobiko, or ikura will not "blend" the same way (and it would be such a waste of those ingredients). There really isn't a good substitute for mentaiko.
I know what you're talking about! I had a Japanese college roommate who introduced me to instant mentiko pasta packets and we ate sooo many of them haha. Just boil pasta and toss! It was so easy and satisfying.
But once I learned how to make mentaiko pasta from scratch I never looked back. Why? Because this recipe is almost as easy as the instant packs, but way more delicious ^_^
If you like mentaiko pasta, you'll definitely enjoy Mentaiko Udon. For breakfast, consider Mentaiko Toast. If you need a bento box component, there's Mentaiko Hapen. And of course Mentaiko Rice is a forever favorite (and easy to make).
Mentaiko Pasta Recipe
Mentaiko Pasta
Ingredients
- ⅓ pound angel hair pasta (or spaghetti)
- 2 lobes mentaiko
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 sheets nori, torn into small pieces
Instructions
- Gently remove the mentaiko from their sacks and place it in a large mixing bowl. Set aside one spoonful of mentaiko and place that in a small bowl (we’ll use this to top the pasta right before serving).
- Add the butter and soy sauce to the large mixing bowl.
- Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Then drain and reserve ¼ cup of the cooking water.
- Pour that cooking water into the mixing bowl with the mentaiko, butter, and soy sauce.
- The add the pasta. Use tongs to gently mix everything together. The butter will melt and mix with the mentaiko and soy sauce. The starch in the pasta water helps everything bind everything together.
- Divide into two bowls. Top with the torn nori and the spoonful of mentaiko we put aside in Step 1. Eat and enjoy ^_^
Nutrition
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Mahalo for Reading!