Why This Recipe Works
The combination of butter and soy sauce increases the taste of umami, making a uniquely Japanese-style wafu pasta. The Asian mushrooms provide an extra boost of umami and more Japanese flavors, transforming this typically Italian food into a Japanese noodle dish. The starchy boiling liquid for the spaghetti helps emulsify the soy sauce and butter into a stable sauce. Butter Soy Sauce Pasta is easy to adapt with almost anything in your fridge, so let your imagination roam beyond the basic ingredients listed here.
What is Wafu Pasta?
Japanese-style pasta, or wafu pasta(和風パスタ), is a delightful melding of Italian cooking with quintessentially Japanese flavors. Dishes like Mentaiko Pasta (a.k.a. Tarako Spaghetti), with its briny cod roe, and Spaghetti Napolitan, a nostalgic ketchup pasta, exemplify this culinary crossover. More recently, dishes like Uni Pasta and Nori Shrimp Pasta have become household favorites, capturing the Japanese spirit of reinvention and transforming familiar Japanese ingredients into something novel yet deeply comforting.
Ingredients for Butter Soy Sauce Pasta
Butter - I like using cultured unsalted butter because the fermentation produces more diacetyl than in regular sweet butter. This compound is responsible for making butter taste buttery, so cultured butter is significantly more flavorful than regular butter. Also, unsalted butter allows you to add more soy sauce without making the sauce salty. If your butter is salted, be sure to reduce the amount of soy sauce you add. Soy Sauce - I’m using ordinary Kikkoman soy sauce for this, but any Japanese-style soy sauce will work. If you use usukuchi soy sauce, reduce the amount, as this variety contains a higher sodium concentration. Pasta - The most common type of noodle used in Japan is dry spaghetti; but this recipe works with any type of pasta. Don’t forget to reserve some of the boiling water for the sauce; this is a key ingredient to making this silky, creamy, butter soy sauce noodle dish. This technique also works with other pasta sauces. Aromatics - I’ve added chopped garlic cloves to this one because they go with the mushrooms, but this is totally optional. You can also add other aromatics here, like ginger, shallots, or white onions. Mushrooms - I’ve used equal parts Asian mushrooms: Shiitake, Maitake (Hen of the Woods), and Shimeji (Beech) mushrooms but any mushroom you have on hand, such as Button, Crimini, or Oyster mushrooms will work. Vegetables - I prefer having my veggies separately (this dish goes great with a green salad with Japanese dressing), but some people like to add vegetables such as corn, potatoes, asparagus, or spinach to it. Garnish - Aromatic herbs make an excellent topping and I particularly like to use greens such as flat-leaf parsley, green shiso, green onions, or chives for an extra boost of flavor.
How to Make Japanese Butter Shoyu Pasta
First, you want to bring a wide, large pot filled with well-salted water to a boil. Contrary to common wisdom, you want to use as little water as possible to make the boiling liquid nice and starchy. This is a key ingredient, as these carbohydrates help you emulsify the butter and soy sauce together into a smooth sauce. While you’re waiting for the pasta water to boil, clean the mushrooms, trim off any inedible parts, and then slice or shred them into bite-sized pieces. Mince up the garlic and parsley. Once the water is boiling, add the spaghetti and quickly submerge it, setting a timer for one minute less than the cooking time specified in the package instructions. Stir it regularly for the first minute or two to keep it from sticking together. Add the olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat and sauté the garlic until fragrant but not brown. Add the mushrooms to the pan and sauté them until they have wilted and started to brown. Season the mushrooms with a pinch of salt, but be careful not to add too much so you don’t end up with a salty sauce. Add a generous amount of black pepper as well. When the noodles are nearly done, melt the butter into the mushrooms. Add the soy sauce and a ladleful of the boiling liquid from the pot (about ½ cup of pasta water to start) and stir vigorously to emulsify the mixture with the butter. When the timer is up, use tongs to transfer the cooked spaghetti directly into the pan with the mushrooms. Stir the spaghetti into the butter soy sauce emulsion as if you are making risotto, adding more pasta water as needed to keep it from sticking. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve immediately.
Variations of Butter Shoyu Pasta
The only necessary ingredients in this recipe are butter, soy sauce, and pasta, so there’s a lot of flexibility in terms of what you can add to this. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Edamame and Bacon - Adding edamame to this pasta is a colorful and delicious way to increase the protein content of this dish. If you do add bacon (or any cured meat), you will want to reduce the amount of soy sauce a little, as it can be quite salty. Try topping the finished dish with some crumbled, crispy bacon. Scallop with Butter Soy Sauce - Any seafood, including crab, shrimp, and clams, will add a wonderful briny flavor, but my absolute favorite is scallops. Just coat the scallops in a bit of oil and get your frying pan scorching hot. Sear both sides of the scallops and then glaze them with half of the butter and soy sauce. Remove them from the pan while you wait for the spaghetti to finish cooking. Then you can make an emulsion with the remaining soy sauce and butter following this recipe and top the finished dish with the scallops. Tangy Tomato - While I wouldn’t recommend adding tomato sauce to this, some pan-roasted cherry tomatoes or sun-dried tomato makes for a delicious and refreshing addition to this dish. Spicy Japanese Pasta - Adding sliced red chili peppers or shichimi togarashi (7-flavor pepper powder), is a great way to bring some heat to this quick meal. Add an Egg - Make your favorite version of this affordable family meal and then top it with a hot spring egg, poached egg, or sunny side up egg to make it a little extra.
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