Vegetarian Wafu Conchiglie Pasta With Tofu and Sake Sauce

As a creative outlet, cooking is extremely satisfying. There’s so much opportunity to combine different ingredients and develop unique dishes. And one of the most distinctive cooking methods is wafu, which translates to ‘Japanese style.’ By bringing together Japanese ingredients with western cooking, you have the potential for out of this world cuisine.

I love experimenting with wafu pasta and a recipe that I’ve come up with recently is a vegetarian dish that uses conchiglie and tofu to create a rich umami texture.

Serves 2 as a main course

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

Butter

3 tbsp of soy sauce

Parmesan cheese

1 bag of pre-made tofu mince mixture

1 tbsp of chili powder

3 tbsp of sake

1 tbsp of chili powder

Black pepper

Conchiglie pasta

Cooking method

Melt a wedge of butter in a frying pan until runny and mix in the parmesan cheese. Continuously add soy sauce until the mixture turns light brown.
Add the tofu mince into the sauce. To save prep time I used a packet of pre-made tofu mixture. Leave to heat for five minutes and pour in the sake to create a thicker sauce and let the alcohol infuse into the tofu. (See note section for sake type)
Pour water into a pan and salt the water. Bring it to boil until bubbles start to appear on the surface and add the pasta. Cook on a high heat for 10 – 15 minutes until the conchiglie softens.
Drain the pasta in a colander and add to the tofu sauce. Mix well and serve with a garnish of black pepper and chilli powder for extra zing.

Notes

My sake of choice was Katsuyama Ken Junmai Ginjo, which has a wonderful mingling of sweet and dry notes. The sake is a good pairing for the butter and soy sauce, unlocking the umami taste that I was after for the sauce. Any sake would work for this dish, but it all depends on the flavour of the sauce.
The chili and black pepper add some underlying spice for a more balanced meal.

For a sweeter tasting pasta, check out my wafu adzuki spaghetti recipe.