Purists and those of a dogmatic disposition look away now.
Those of you that love big flavours, hop on the bus to Tasty Town.
This is something that’s been in the back of my mind ever since a girl at work told me her Mom makes her “Miso Buttered Noodles”.
I thought it sounded cool and then sat on it for about three years.
I thought you could add a few layers of flavour to the dish by combining the umami of miso with the funk of pecorino cheese and complimenting the pepper with saline, seasidey seaweed.
So the purists won’t like this, but the dish contains a healthy amount of butter. No, Cacio e Pepe doesn’t contain butter, but i needed to employ some sauce making technique to get everything to emulsify and butter helps a lot here.
I started by putting the Bucatini on and in a seperate pan toasting lots of black pepper and Aonori flakes. To that I added a heaped teaspoon of dark miso with a good soy bean content. Once this came together I started adding pasta water and butter simultaneously to build a sauce. As it thickened, add more water, add more butter. When I had a good half cup of sauce I started grating in Pecorino.
I brought the pasta into the pan and tossed to coat, adding more cheese and adjusting if needed.
Plated with more pepper and a bit more cheese and served with a glass of Amontillado Sherry.
The takeaway.
The dish works and I encourage you to try similar.
The miso is prominent but not the sole base flavour. The pepper is unavoidable as it should be and the cheese is unmistakable yet more subtle than the traditional version. The seaweed is in the background and on the finish. It provides this little back note that is subtle and interesting.
Bucatini is a pain to plate and eat. I like the texture but it not twirling makes it splat everywhere.
by agmanning