Bringing together food from different cultures can be a fun way to experiment with new dishes and develop unexpected flavour combinations. That’s why I enjoy creating wafu meals that combine European aesthetics with Japanese ingredients and cooking techniques.
Pasta is one of the easiest ingredients to mix into a wafu meal, especially when using leftovers. With that in mind, here is my wafu pasta jumble recipe that includes tofu and cannellini beans soaked in a homemade shochu roux.
Serves 2 as main course
Cooking time: 20 – 30 minutes
Ingredients
Pasta
2 bags of different pasta (any will do!)
1 can of cannellini beans
Tofu chunks
2 sheets of nori
Shochu roux
3 tsp of milk
3 dollops of butter
3 tsp of flour
5 tsp of shochu
2 tsp of soy sauce
Cooking method
- Pour water into a pan and salt the water. Let the water start to bubble and then add the pasta of your choice into the pan. Cook on high heat for 15 – 20 minutes.
- Melt butter into a pan and then add milk and flour to thicken up the sauce. Add shochu and soy sauce, then stir thoroughly until the sauce takes on a dark brown colour. Leave to simmer for 5 – 10 minutes on low heat.
- Cut up tofu into chunks and drain cannellini beans into a colander. Add both into the sauce and mix well.
- Rip up nori sheets into smaller pieces and add to the sauce.
- Drain the pasta, mix with the sauce and serve.
Additional notes
- Using soy sauce in the roux creates umami notes in the pasta.
- The shochu I used for this recipe was Witch’s Kiss mugi (barley). The meaty qualities of the drink went really well with the soy sauce and elevated the umami flavours even more!
Let me know if you try this recipe out and I’d also love to know if you have any favourite wafu recipes that you’ve made too.
Yamato Magazine 