If a person has never been to Japan, it’s probably hard for him/her to imagine that the Japanese cook and eat Italian food quite often. In fact, Italian restaurants are everywhere, I mean everywhere. At home we cook all kinds of pasta, and the younger generation definitely eat more Italian food than my parents’ generation.
Last year I saw an article in San Francisco Chronicle about the growing Japanese influence on San Francisco food. It’s an interesting article to read if you have time. But here I’m still talking about Italian food in Japan. In this article, the editor Michael Bauer mentioned that chef David Kinch at Manresa said, “the best French and Italian restaurants in the world outside of France and Italy are in Japan. It is that amazing.” Personally I’ve only been in Japan, some other Asian countries, and the US so I can’t make the same statement. But I have to agree that even Italian restaurants in my local Yokohama neighborhood serves superb Italian food, compared to the Italian restaurants in my neighborhood in the US. Not just restaurants, Japanese housewives cook pretty tasty pasta as well and they even create their version with Japanese ingredients.
Today, I will share one spaghetti recipe with a Japanese twist. I add a little bit of soy sauce to the cream sauce as a secret ingredient. I hope you will give this mushroom bacon spaghettiΒ a try and let me know what you think. Lastly, when you visit Japan, don’t be surprised to see many Italian restaurants!
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- 2 servings spaghetti
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
- 4 slices bacon (cut into Β½β pieces)
- 3 mushrooms (sliced)
- 2 shiitake mushrooms (sliced)
- 1 pkg shimeji mushrooms (cut off the base part of shimeji mushrooms)
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- β cup heavy (whipping) cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cube vegetable bouillon (optional)
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Parsley (to garnish)
- Start cooking spaghetti according to package instructions. Meanwhile, prepare the rest of ingredients. You can combine heavy whipping cream and milk in the same measuring cup.
- In a large skillet heat olive oil on medium heat and cook garlic until fragrant.
- Add bacon and sautΓ©.
- Add the three kinds of mushrooms and mix all together. Sprinkle pepper if you like.
- Stir in flour and keep mixing with wooden spoon. Constantly scrape off the bottom of the pan.
- Stir in whipping cream and milk and continue scraping off the bottom of the pan.
- Add a bouillon cube and break it with the wooden spoon (optional). Bring the sauce to a boil.
- When boiling, add soy sauce and mix all together.
- When the sauce gets thicken, add black pepper (and salt) to taste. Bacon is salty so I usually donβt put salt here.
- You can add spaghetti in the skillet to mix with the sauce, or you can pour the sauce over the spaghetti on a serving plate. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If youβd like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Cooking Time: <45 minutes
Makes 2 servingsIngredients:2 servings of spaghetti
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 slices bacon, cut into Β½β pieces
3 mushrooms, sliced
2 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 pkg shimeji mushroom, cut off the base part of shimeji mushrooms
Freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/3 heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk
1 cube vegetable bouillon
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
Parsley for garnishDirections:1. Start cooking spaghetti according to package instructions. Prepare the rest of ingredients. You can combine heavy whipping cream and milk in the same measuring cup.2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet heat olive oil on medium heat and cook garlic until fragrant.3. Add bacon and sautΓ©.4. Add the three kinds of mushrooms and mix all together. Sprinkle pepper if you like.5. Stir in flour and keep mixing with wooden spoon. Constantly scrape off the bottom of the pan.6. Stir in whipping cream and milk and continue scraping off the bottom of the pan.7. Add bouillon and break it with the wooden spoon. Bring the sauce to a boil.8. When boiling, add soy sauce and mix all together.9. When the sauce gets thicken, add black pepper (and salt) to taste. Bacon is salty so I usually donβt put salt here.10. You can add spaghetti in the skillet to mix with the sauce, or you can pour the sauce over the spaghetti on a serving plate. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.
I made this today for my dinner and I love it! I added the broccoli too π Thank you~
Hi Jessica! How sweet of you… thanks for coming back and letting me know! I’m glad you liked it. My husband is not much into spaghetti but he absolutely loves this dish. Thank you and I hope you enjoy my website. π
Hi Nami,
I made this today for lunch and my boyfriend and I both loved it! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe..Look forward to trying all the others… π
Hi Twinky! Sorry I didn’t realize your comment here. Thank you so much for cooking this pasta! I’m happy you liked it. π Thank you for leaving comment here, too!
ok, will try this possibly with some seafood π thanks for sharing!
Hi Jen! I hope you will like it – seafood sounds great! π
Hi Nami, I made this for dinner today for the second time. It’s quite easy and I love mushroom. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Hi Amanda! I like this pasta too! So glad you enjoyed this dish and made it for the second time! Thank you for letting me know! xo π
I wish to make this spaghetti but I do not like the taste of shiitake. i will just use regular white mushroom unless you can recommend any other type beside shimeji. Will enoki work or is that one for soups only? We have good οΈVirginia thick bacon here that I want to use today!
Hi Tasha! So sorry for my late response! Don’t worry if you don’t like the taste of shiitake. You can simply omit it – do you have any other types of mushrooms you enjoy? Simply use them. Mushrooms have nice umami, so it’s nice to replace shiitake with something else. We do put enoki in Japaense style mushrooms too:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-style-mushroom-tuna-pasta/
Hope you enjoy! π
Hi Nami,
If I don’t want bacon, what kind of substitute meat should I go for? How do I prepare for that particular meat? π
Hi Jen! You can use sausage or ham if you like, or chicken or shrimp, maybe. Hope this helps! π
I love the pasta in Japan and it is the best I’ve ever tried.
Hi Melisa! Me too! I’m happy you like it too. π
I had no idea, what to cook. I had some crimini mushrooms and bacon in the fridge and wondered which cooking blog to search to find a receipe for these ingredients. Justonecookbook was all I needed, and the first result was a perfect choice! What a satisfying and tasty dish this is! Thank you so much!
Hi Eevamaria! Aww! Thank you for checking my site when you’re not sure what to cook. π I’m so happy you liked this recipe! It’s a super quick and yummy recipe we enjoy too!
Hi, I am Ravi from Malaysia. Today my wife and I made this dish for dinner.
It was easy to make and very tasty indeed., we replaced bacon with seafood and some vegetables (baby spinach and brocolli). My family enjoyed this dish very much and this recipe is for keeps. We will of course be doing this dish again. Many thanks.
Hi Ravi! Thank you for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear your family enjoyed this dish. Thank you for your kind feedback. π
I made this dish, this past Saturday. I was really surprised about a Japanese Italian dish. It was delicious!! Thank you for your recipe!
Hi Kodi! I’m so happy to hear you tried this recipe and enjoyed it. Thank you very much for your kind feedback!
Aloha Nami,
A friend gave me a big bag of eryngii mushrooms the other day so I searched your website and made this for dinner tonight. I also used shimeji, shiitake and enoki mushrooms. It was so delicious, especially with the shoyu in there. I will be making this again. Thank you for sharing!! Mahalo, Amy????????????
Aloha Amy! I’m so glad you liked this recipe! Super easy right? π Soy sauce makes it wonderful Wafu Pasta. Thanks for trying this recipe (despite the picture is not so pretty)… π
Hi, can I just use all milk instead of using whipping cream? Thanks
Hi Joanne! Sure, you can. It’ll be less creamy but healthier. π
OMG this was so good! Melt in your mouth! I like to eat rice with my Japanese dinners but for lunch I don’t like to eat rice again but being Japanese-American and raised in the USA I love pasta for lunch. I will try this again and just use milk and maybe butter to make the roux so I don’t need cream too, maybe use starch but I might not need it. I only used shiitake mushroom and I kicked it up with a little cayenne. Japanese seem to like a little more bland when it comes to dishes but in Southern USA they like fire spice lol, like “Nashville Hot Chicken” (spicy friend chicken). I almost wonder if Japanese Karaage could meet up with Nashville hot chicken fusion one day. Anyways this was so yum, hope you make a video on YouTube. I love collecting your videos in a Playlist. Thank you! ^_^
Hi Lili! I’m glad you enjoyed this dish! Japanese don’t really eat super spicy food so I can see why it can be more bland. I was in Charleston this past weekend and I really enjoyed Southern food! I have YouTube channel but I don’t have the video for this recipe. π Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. xo