Pasta with Miso Bolognese Sauce

Makes 4-6 servings

The classic tagliatelle with Bolognese sauce gets a wafu kakushiaji (“secret umami enhancer”)—sake, miso, mirin, and kombu dashi. For an even deeper layer of umami, make this sauce with chicken dashi or chintan dashi. What’s not to love? Serve this sauce over traditional pasta or udon noodles, or use it to make a wafu-ed lasagna.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 2 ounces (56 grams) pancetta, diced

  Wafu Cooking: Everyday Recipes with Japanese Style: A Cookbook Sonoko Sakai

• 1 small yellow onion, minced

• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced

• 1 medium carrot, peeled and finely chopped

• 1 medium stalk celery, finely chopped

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

• ¾ pound (454 grams) ground beef chuck

• ¼ pound (127 grams) ground pork

• 1 cup (240 ml) milk

• Pinch ground nutmeg

• 1 cup (240 ml) sake or white wine

• One 28 ounce can (793 grams) plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped, with their juice

• 1 bay leaf

• 2 sprigs fresh thyme

• 3 leaves fresh sage

• 2 tablespoons miso

• 1 tablespoon mirin, or more to taste

• Sea salt, to taste

• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• 1 cup (240 ml) Kombu Dashi, Quick Chintan Dashi, (see below) or more if needed

• 1½ pounds (680 grams) pasta (tagliatelle, spaghetti, or rigatoni) or udon noodles

• ¼ cup (22 grams) freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more to taste, for garnish

DIRECTIONS 

Add the oil to a large pot set over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook until lightly brown, about 3 minutes. Add the onions and stir and cook until they become soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Then add the garlic, carrots, and celery, stir to combine, and continue cooking for about 4 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Cooking over low heat helps bring out the aromas and amami—the sweetness.

Add 1 tablespoon of the butter to the pot and raise the heat to medium. Add the meat and cook until the pink is gone and the water from the meat has evaporated. Add the milk and continue stirring until it has evaporated. Add the nutmeg and stir to combine.

Add the sake or wine to the pot, scrape up any bits sticking to the bottom, and continue cooking over low heat until the alcohol has evaporated.

Add the tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme, sage, miso, and mirin. Stir to combine, and continue cooking, uncovered, over low heat for 1½ hours. Taste. Add salt and pepper as needed. The sauce will thicken as it cooks, so replenish with ½–1 cup of dashi if needed and continue cooking for another half hour.

To serve, bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, then drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid. In the meantime, reheat the meat sauce over medium-high heat. Add a little pasta water to emulsify the sauce. Add the cooked pasta and turn off heat. Add the remaining butter and toss several times to combine. Garnish with grated Parmesan.

Kombu Dashi

• Makes 8 cups (about 2 liters) 

• 8 cups (2 liters) water

One 5 x 5 inch (12 x 12 cm) piece dried kombu (20 grams)

Fill a pitcher with the water. Add the dried kombu and let it steep for at least 1 hour and up to overnight in the fridge but not more than 12 hours to avoid the dashi getting slimy, because the kombu is water soluble. Remove the kombu. The dashi is now ready to use. It can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Quick Chintan Dashi – Quick Pork and Chicken Broth

Makes 7 cups (1.7 liters)

• 10 cups (2.25 liters) water

• One 3 x 3 inch (7 x 7 cm) piece kombu (10 grams)

• 1 pound (454 grams) ground pork

• 1 pound (454 grams) ground chicken (preferably white meat)

• 1 ounce (28 grams) ginger, peeled and sliced into ¼ inch (6 mm) coins

• 2 garlic cloves, smashed

• 1 leek, green parts only, cut into 3 inch (7 cm) pieces crosswise then sliced thinly

• Sea salt, to taste

• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Fill a large pot with the water. Without turning the heat on, add the kombu and ground pork and stir with a pair of long cooking chopsticks or a spatula to distribute it into the water. Add the ground chicken and repeat. Add the ginger, garlic, and leeks. The water will look a bit cloudy.

Turn the heat on medium-high and bring the water to a boil, then lower to a bare simmer (200°F/95°C). Let the dashi simmer for 30 minutes, until it becomes clear. Do not disturb the ingredients or stir.

Pour the dashi through a fine mesh strainer lined with paper towel or damp cheesecloth. The dashi is ready to be used.

From Wafu Cooking by Sonoko Sakai. Copyright © 2024 by Sonoko Sakai. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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