Wafū Kinoko Pasta (和風きのこパスタ, soy-butter mushroom pasta)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large pot for boiling pasta
• •Wide heavy skillet or sauté pan
• •Saibashi (long cooking chopsticks), or tongs
• •Sharp knife for cutting shiso

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the mushrooms

   Wipe the mushrooms clean with a barely damp cloth if they need it, but don't wash them under the tap. Water clings to the gills and frilled edges, and then the pan spends its first minutes drying them instead of browning them. Slice the shiitake, pull shimeji into small clusters, and tear maitake or eringi by hand where you can. Torn edges brown well and catch the soy-butter sauce.

2. 2

   Boil the spaghetti

   Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a full boil and cook the spaghetti until one minute shy of the package time. It should still have a little bite, because it finishes in the pan and drinks in the sauce there. Before draining, save at least 1/2 cup of the cooking water. The starch in that water helps butter and dashi cling to the noodles instead of sliding to the bottom.

3. 3

   Brown the mushrooms

   Set a wide skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. When it shimmers, add the mushrooms in as close to a single layer as your pan allows. Leave them alone for two minutes before tossing. This is the detail that decides the dish: mushrooms carry water, and if you move them too much or salt them too early, they stew in their own dampness. Once the edges are browned and the pan smells nutty and woodsy, add the garlic and 1 tablespoon of the butter.

4. 4

   Build the sauce

   When the garlic is fragrant but not colored, add the sake and let it bubble for a few seconds so its raw edge cooks off. Add the dashi and shōyu, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. You're not making a heavy sauce. You're lifting the browned mushroom flavor into a small, glossy broth that can coat the spaghetti cleanly.

5. 5

   Toss the pasta

   Add the drained spaghetti, 1/4 cup of reserved pasta water, and the remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Toss firmly with tongs or saibashi until the noodles turn glossy and the sauce clings in a thin coat. If the pan looks dry, add another spoonful of pasta water. If it looks soupy, keep tossing over the heat for a few seconds. The right finish is sheen, not a puddle.

6. 6

   Finish with shiso

   Take the pan off the heat. Add black pepper if you like, then toss in half the shiso and plate at once. Scatter the rest over the top. Shiso's fragrance is quick and green, and it fades when cooked too long, so it belongs at the end. Serve the pasta with a little height and room around it, the way we leave the plate breathing.

Chef Tips

• •Buy mushrooms that look dry and firm, with no slime and no sour smell. Sourcing first, always. A good mushroom already smells faintly of the forest, and the pan's job is only to bring that forward.
• •Use a wide pan. Crowded mushrooms give off water faster than it can cook away, and then browning never properly begins. If your skillet is small, brown the mushrooms in two batches and return them all to the pan for the sauce.
• •For a meatless table, use konbu-shiitake dashi. That is honmono, not a compromise. The dried shiitake deepens the mushroom flavor and keeps the dish within the Japanese tradition.
• •Don't reach for instant dashi granules here if you can help it. This sauce is small, so every spoonful matters. Keep homemade dashi in ice-cube portions and this weeknight pasta stays weeknight-simple.
• •Cut shiso just before serving with a sharp knife. Bruised leaves darken and lose their clean scent, and this dish needs that last green note.

Advance Preparation

• •Dashi keeps two days refrigerated and freezes well in small portions. A 1/4-cup cube is exactly the sort of quiet preparation that makes this dish fast.
• •The mushrooms can be trimmed a few hours ahead and held between paper towels in the refrigerator. Do not salt them until they are browned.
• •Measure the sake, dashi, and shōyu before you start cooking. Once the mushrooms brown, the dish moves quickly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 400g)