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Japan, Asia

Mentaiko Pasta

Japan's café classic: hot spaghetti tossed with salty, buttery spicy pollock roe, no cooking for the sauce, topped with shiso and nori.

ServingsServes 2
Total cooking time22 min
DifficultyEasy
About servingsMentaiko is salt-cured raw pollock roe and is barely cooked here. For pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system, move the pasta and sauce to a pan in step 4 and stir over low heat for 1–2 minutes until the roe turns fully opaque. Keep the roe refrigerated and use it before its date.

Method

  1. Slit the roe sacs lengthwise, scrape the eggs out with the back of a spoon into a large bowl and discard the tough membrane. Add the butter (softened for 30 minutes at room temperature) and the soy sauce and mash everything together into a smooth pink paste. Choose a roomy bowl: you will toss the pasta right in it.

    Add in this stepMentaiko (spicy cured pollock roe) 80 gUnsalted butter, softened 20 gSoy sauce 1 tsp

  2. Fill a 20 cm pot with the water, cover and bring to a rolling boil over high heat, about . Add the salt once it boils; use less than for ordinary pasta because the roe is already salty.

    Add in this stepWater for the pasta 2 LSalt (for the pasta water) 2 tsp

    high heat

  3. Drop in the spaghetti, fanning it out, and once it softens and sinks (about 30 seconds) stir once so the strands don't stick. Keep it boiling over medium-high heat for , 1 minute less than the packet says. Bite a strand: it is ready when a hair-thin firm line remains in the centre.

    Add in this stepSpaghetti (1.6–1.8 mm) 200 g

    medium-high heat

  4. Just before draining, ladle the pasta water into the roe bowl and stir to loosen the sauce. Drain the spaghetti, shake it lightly (don't rinse) and, while it is still steaming, tip it into the bowl and toss quickly with tongs for about 30 seconds. The heat of the pasta melts the butter and turns the roe pale pink so it clings to every strand. If it looks dry, add a little more pasta water, 1 tablespoon at a time.

    Add in this stepPasta cooking water (saved) 45 ml

  5. Roll the shiso leaves into a tight cigar and slice into fine threads; snip the nori into thin strips with scissors. Pile the pasta high on plates, top with the shiso and nori and serve immediately; add the nori at the last moment so it stays crisp.

    Add in this stepShiso leaves 3Toasted nori sheet ½

Cook's tip

Don't heat the sauce in a pan: the roe cooks into dry, grainy clumps. Tossing with the heat of the pasta alone keeps it silky. No shiso? Use thinly sliced spring onion or basil. For a creamier sauce, mix in 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise or cream. Roe varies in saltiness, so taste before adding all the soy sauce.

Cooking it at camp

Boil the water in a large pot on a camp stove; if water is scarce, break the spaghetti in half so a smaller pot works, and always save some pasta water to loosen the sauce. Keep the roe and butter in a cooler below 5 °C and toss everything directly in the pot or a big bowl.