My method involves making a mixture of mentaiko and olive oil and then emulsifying this with butter and the starchy boiling liquid from the pasta. This creates a rich, velvety sauce with the full flavor of the mentaiko and olive oil that doesn’t get cloying or heavy.
Why This Recipe Works?
Cream mutes the flavor and spiciness of the mentaiko. By omitting it and making the sauce with mentaiko, olive oil, and starchy pasta water, you get a clean, briny sauce highlighting the simple ingredients’ flavors. Since the boiling liquid from the pasta is a vital component of the sauce, it is essential to boil the spaghetti in as little water as possible to make it nice and starchy; otherwise, the sauce will end up watery. A pat of butter not only helps to emulsify the liquids and oils to make the sauce, but it also adds just a hint of creaminess without making it heavy or cloying. Black pepper adds a citrusy zing that helps mask any fishiness from the cod roe.
Ingredients
Mentaiko - Mentaiko (明太子) is variously translated as pollock roe or cod roe. The fish it comes from is called the “Alaskan Pollack” in English, but this fish is technically a member of the genus Gadus (cod), not Pollachius (pollock), which is why it’s translated both ways. The eggs are very small and do not pop like tobiko or masago. Mentaiko can usually be found frozen at Japanese and Korean grocery stores and typically come in the roe sack, but I’ve also seen it removed from the sack and packed in jars, making it easier to use. Olive oil - Use a creamy, fruity olive oil here that is not too spicy or astringent. Although I’m sure there are exceptions, the more yellow an olive oil is, the creamier it tends to be, while greener olive oils tend to be spicier. This is because greener olive oils are made from younger olives, which contain more chlorophyll. Pasta - Mentaiko Pasta is traditionally made with spaghetti (I used one that’s 1.9mm in diameter), but you could make this with any pasta. When choosing spaghetti, I usually like to look for one with a rough surface (as opposed to the super-smooth ones). This not only releases more starch into the boiling liquid, but the more irregular surface also helps the sauce to adhere to the pasta better. Butter - Butter contains casein which acts as an emulsifier. This allows the pasta water and olive oil to mix into a creamy sauce. The butter also adds a nice flavor to the sauce without making it heavy or cloying. Since mentaiko can be pretty salty, I recommend using unsalted butter. Also, I used cultured butter for this, which has had the cream fermented before it’s churned. This increases the amount of diacetyl in the butter, which is responsible for giving butter its taste. Black Pepper - Since mentaiko is already spicy, it may seem odd to add black pepper as well, but in this case, it’s added for fragrance rather than heat. Freshly cracked black pepper has a citrusy aroma that can help mask any fishiness from the cod roe.
How to Make Mentaiko Pasta
Making Mentaiko Pasta involves three basic steps. First, you need to make the sauce by removing the cod roe from the roe sac and whisking it together with olive oil and black pepper. Then you boil the pasta in a small amount of salted water until it’s fully cooked. Finally, the pasta is added to the bowl with the mentaiko sauce and tossed together with the butter until everything is well combined. The key here is to transfer the spaghetti directly from the pot into the sauce. This ensures some of the starchy boiling liquid makes it over into the sauce. Then you’ll want to ladle some of the water into the pasta as you toss it to keep the noodles nice and lubricated.
Other Japanese Pasta Recipes
Beyond Mentaiko pasta, there is a whole genre of “Wafu pasta” (literally Japanese-style pasta) in Japan that blends Italian techniques with Japanese ingredients and flavors. Dishes like Uni Pasta and Nori Pasta use their namesake ingredients to create a rich, briny sauce for noodles that tastes like a fresh ocean breeze. Despite its Italian-sounding name, Spaghetti Napolitan is a uniquely Japanese creation featuring a sweet tomato sauce with sautéed vegetables and often ham or sausage. For mushroom lovers, Japanese Mushroom Pasta showcases the earthy flavors of shiitake, shimeji, and maitake in a butter soy sauce emulsion.
📖 Recipe
