Japanese style pasta

In Japan there are plenty of Italian restaurants but many serve not a genuine Italian company cuisine, but rather pasta, or more spaghetti, with a strong Japanese touch. The much classic would be mentaiko – 明太子, some kind of poutargue, or spucy fish eggs, with nori. But it goes much beyond that. At first it is a bit strange to eat spaghetti with Japanese flavours, but there are some really nice combinations. In particular, I find that the nori goes very well with pasta. So I prepared some Japanese style pasta for lunch. I didn’t have spaghetti, so I used penne. And because I had some pickled Chinese cabbage to finish, I prepared some tomato sauce and serve the whole thing together. Deliciously confusing!

Penne Japanese style: 

– 200 of penne

– 3 tomatoes very ripe

– 1/8 of pickled Chinese cabbage, if not pickled, you will need a little of white vinegar of your choice in addition, and a pinch of salt 

– 1tbs of rice oil, or vegetal snd neutral oil

– 1 handfull of thinly cut nori

– black pepper  

Boil water for the pasta, in the meantime in a saucer set the tomatoes diced. Cook at medium heat until it reduces. Cut the cabbage in bite size and add to the tomatoes. If you are using non-pickled Chinese cabbage do the same but add 1tsp oc vinegar and a pinch of salt. Add the ground black pepper to your liking. Once the penne are cooked, deain and serve in the plates. Add the tomatoes-cabbage sauce and complete with a topping of nori. Serve immediately.

 

Deconstructed frittata

I am really in love with this whole wheat pasta and in particular penne that can be found super easily in any good supermarket in Tokyo. This time it’s deconstructed frittata style for two with already cooked pasta, one new onion, one capsicum, three eggs all cooked in a greased pan, and a handful of raw cherry tomatoes added at the very end. Finished with olive oil, salt and pepper. An other manner to get plenty of good energy, a colorful and tasty plate and vitamins.

Spring energy

With super fresh green beans and broad beans it is really easy to prepare anything. They just need to be blanched and can be eaten with everything: risotto, pasta, quinoa… I prepared some quinoa the other day, so today it is whole wheat penne. A bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and you have the perfect dinner ready in 10min!!! Full of energy and good things to survive this week!!!

Sunny Japanese autumn – 秋晴れ

I love these autumn days when the skies are so blue and the light is so bright, these “akibare” days. This is an invitation to wake up early and be outside all day long . So I spend little time cooking during the day and we need some quick fix for lunch, yet full of energy to enjoy a few more other hours out gardening, hiking, playing tennis or whatever. Pasta provide a perfect base, and since temperature are still warm if not hot at this time of the day, acold salad is perfect: penne with avocado, radish, cucumber, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, olive oil and ready!

Enjoy the autumn! It’s so beautiful outside! 

Farro penne salada

Recently there’s been a lot of green beans and broad beans, it is just the pick season here in Japan and I can’t resist buying some several times a week, so our dinner have been based on these greens quite often. Recently I also found okra from Okinawa (usually they come from the Philippines), but not yet local okra. I find the one from Okinawa particularly delicious. It’s funny because I never ate okra before coming to Japan, at first I found it was a strange vegetable, but little by little I started to really enjoy them. When eaten raw they are a bit slimy which might be discussing for some people, but as soon as you boil them for a few seconds they’re not slimy anymore and they keep this beautiful intense green color.
This time I prepared for dinner a farro penne salada. I boiled  the pasta al-dente, and boil the broad beans and green beans together, in the last 30seconds I just added the okra.
I served that with olive oil, salt and pepper, as usual, and added some wild smoked salmon (I don’t why I mention “wild”, because I only eat wild fish from specific areas, like all the vegetables I use are either organic or locally grown without chemicals).
And dinner was ready in less than 15min! Perfect after a long day at work!

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