Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Pasta with a Japanese twist! A dash of soy sauce is the secret ingredient that gives nice umami and savoriness to the dish.
Whether it’s a Monday dinner for the family or a Friday date night, no one can dispute the idea of a rich, comforting and oh-so-good pasta like this Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Pasta. And yes, the Japanese love pasta just like anyone else. We love noodles and carbs, and we enjoy experimenting with global dishes, giving them some new dimension with our very own Japanese twist.
Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Pasta with a Japanese Twist!
In Japanese cuisine, there’s a thing calls the Japanese-style pasta or what we call Wafu Pasta (和風パスタ). They are essentially Italian pasta dishes that include a few Japanese condiments, and sometimes Japanese ingredients.
In this Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Pasta, for example, I added shiitake mushrooms and shimeji mushrooms, to give new life to the western-style noodle dish. I also added a splash of soy sauce into the cream. You don’t need a lot of soy sauce here, but just the right amount to lend nice umami, depth, and savoriness.
Some other condiments like miso, sake, tonkatsu sauce are also commonly used in western dishes (pasta, soup, main dishes etc). You don’t have to save Japanese condiments for Japanese food. Have fun experimenting!
Here are some of Wafu Pasta recipes on the blog:
- Easy Wafu Pasta with Shrimp and Asparagus
- Classic Mentaiko Pasta
- Ume Shiso Pasta
- Naporitan (Ketchup Spaghetti)
Versatile Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Pasta
This recipe calls for 4 main ingredients: pasta, bacon, mushroom, and garlic, which are staples in the kitchen. But feel free to replace them with pretty much any other ingredients from your fridge. Here are some of my suggestions that would go with this creamy sauce.
Protein
- Chicken
- Ham
- Sausage
- Shrimp
- Salmon
Vegetables & Mushrooms
- Spinach
- Arugula
- Kale
- Asparagus
- Portobello mushrooms
- Oyster mushrooms
- Chanterelle mushrooms
- Enoki mushrooms
Do you have any other good idea? Please share in the comments below!
5 Tips to Remember When Making Pasta
The following tips will apply to the majority of pasta recipes you’ll be cooking.
- Use 4 quarts (4 L) of water for ½ to 1 lb of pasta.
- Add 1 ½ tablespoon of kosher salt (if table salt, use half) to the water.
- Typically, cook 4 oz (113 g, ¼ lb) of dried pasta per person.
- Cook pasta till al dente; slightly undercooked or “firm to the bite”.
- Reserve ½ cup (120 ml) pasta cooking water just in case you need to dilute your pasta sauce.
Love of Italian Food in Japan
If you have never been to Japan, it’s probably hard to imagine that the Japanese cook and eat western food quite often. In fact, Italian restaurants are everywhere in Japan, and I mean everywhere. At home, we cook all kinds of pasta, some are with a Japanese twist (we call this type “Wafu Pasta” 和風パスタ).
Several years ago I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the growing Japanese influence on San Francisco food (It’s an interesting article to read if you have time). In the 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.” My neighborhood Italian restaurants in Yokohama serve superb Italian food compared to the local Italian restaurants here in my neighborhood in the US.
When you’re in Japan and got tired of eating Japanese food, try an Italian restaurant and you might be pleasantly surprised!
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Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Pasta
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon (5.3 oz, 150 g)
- 1.8 oz shimeji mushrooms (½ package; or use any other mushrooms)
- 4 cremini mushrooms (1.8 oz, 50 g; you can also use button mushrooms)
- 4 shiitake mushrooms (1.8 oz, 50 g; or use any other mushrooms))
- 1 ½ Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
For the pasta
- 8 oz pasta (spaghetti, linguine, or fettuccine; 4 oz/113 g per person)
- 4 quarts water
- 1 ½ Tbsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt)
For the creamy sauce
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 1 cup milk
- ⅓ cup heavy (whipping) cream
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- ⅛ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt)
To Garnish
- parsley
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Add 1 ½ Tbsp salt in 4 quarts (4L) of water and bring it to a boil for cooking spaghetti. Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Once water is boiling, add spaghetti and cook according to package instructions. Tip 1: Stop cooking 1 minute earlier as you will continue to cook pasta in the frying pan. Tip 2: Before draining the pasta, reserve ½ cup (120 ml) pasta cooking water. Drain well and set aside.
- Cut the bacon slices into ½ inch (1.25 cm) pieces.
- Cut the bottom of the mushrooms and slice them. Cut the bottom end of shimeji mushrooms.
- Remove the stem of shiitake mushrooms and slice them.
- In a large frying pan, heat 1 ½ Tbsp olive oil on medium heat. Note: if you use a non-stick frying pan, you can skip the oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the bacon and sauté.
- Once the bacon fat renders, crush 2 cloves garlic and add into the pan.
- Add all the mushrooms and saute together. Add 1 Tbsp butter and freshly ground black pepper.
- Add the flour and make sure to keep stirring so the flour doesn’t stick at the bottom of the pan.
- Stir in 1 cup milk, ⅓ cup heavy cream, and 1 Tbsp soy sauce. Continue scraping off the bottom of the pan. Flour will thicken the sauce.
- Taste the sauce and add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste if necessary. If the sauce is too thick, you can add ¼ cup of pasta cooking water (after that, add a tablespoon one at a time) to dilute the sauce. Tip: You want to make sure it tastes a bit stronger than you want the final dish to be (because you will add spaghetti).
- Add cooked spaghetti in the frying pan, or alternatively, you can pour the sauce over the spaghetti on a serving plate. Using the pair of tongs, coat the spaghetti with the sauce.
- If you like, add freshly ground black pepper. Serve and garnish with parsley.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on March 9, 2011. It was updated with new images in February 2019.
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 ½” 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 sauté.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 don’t 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 😀 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. 🙂
love this creamy mushroom and bacon recipe! it’ll definitely be a staple recipe for me going forward. 🙂 I used king oyster mushrooms instead and it worked out. ps – I was excited for you when I saw kenji in your kitchen!
Hi Holly! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it. 🙂
Haha, yeah it was a surprise for us too when he said he would come to our house! Our kitchen is blessed!!!
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… 🙂
Hi Twinky! Sorry I didn’t realize your comment here. Thank you so much for cooking this pasta! I’m happy you liked it. 🙂 Thank you for leaving comment here, too!
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 🙂
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 ️Virginia 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! 🙂
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? 🙂
Hi Jen! You can use sausage or ham if you like, or chicken or shrimp, maybe. Hope this helps! 🙂
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. 🙂
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. 😀 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. 🙂
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? 🙂 Soy sauce makes it wonderful Wafu Pasta. Thanks for trying this recipe (despite the picture is not so pretty)… 🙂
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. 🙂
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. 🙂 Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. xo
When I lived in Japan and would eat out, this dish was always included in the pasta section of every menu. Also a staple on every pasta menu was a similar dish, only it was spinach and bacon, with a dashi base sauce (not cream base). I have always wanted to learn how to make this as it’s my all-time favorite pasta, but I can’t figure it out! When I guess, it just doesn’t taste right. If you could publish this pasta recipe as well, I would be forever grateful!
Hi April! So it’s not a creamy one, it’s simple dashi base spinach and bacon pasta. I think it’s a dash of soy sauce. Do you add it? I’ll add to my list. Hopefully I get to try when I go back this summer. I LOVE wafu pasta, but the rest of my family is not a big wafu pasta fan (when they are in Japan, they rather eat other food!) so we rarely go to pasta place… I’ll look into it!
I am a third generation Japanese Canadian and I have been using your recipes to learn how to cook dishes my mother used to make. Recently I tried your bacon and mushroom pasta and it was delicious! You are right – the addition of the shoyu made a huge impact on the flavor!
Hi Norman! Thank you so much for trying my recipes and cooking Japanese food! I’m so happy you liked this pasta! Yes, shoyu adds fantastic umami – it’s a great secret seasoning!
Hi Peter! I’m not sure where you live, but here in the US, kosher salt (or sea salt) is a standard salt in most recipes (even though you’re not kosher). It’s basically pure salt you get, which is great for cooking. However, if I don’t write “kosher salt” and just write “salt”, some recipe users who use table salt as their cooking salt may put too much salt in the food. Therefore, we always specify what type of salt it is. If you use table salt, you need to cut down of the salt in half. Hope this makes sense.
Quick question, where did you get that spoon and fork from?
Long time reader of recipes, thanks for all you do.
Hi Sam! Thank you for reading my blog for a long time! 🙂 They are from Cutipol (Portugal brand) and this series is called Goa.
https://www.cutipol.pt/store-cutlery-goa-collection-24-pieces-set-wood-chest-2559
If you’re in the US, you can purchase from two online shops:
http://www.abchome.com/shop/brands/cutipol
https://www.amara.com/us/shop/flatware
Hope this helps! I like their simple, but functional flatwares.
Really nice recipe, I added an egg yolk before the finish and it turns out to be amazing. The yolk add the body and richness to the sauce. Always love your recipes Nami.
PS. Can you show us how to cook hokkaido butadon? I have it when I went on a trip to hokkaido last year. I tried to recreate it a couple of times, but they are nowhere near the original.
Hi Jenjira! Thank you for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback! The egg yolk addition sounds delicious! The Butadon… the sauce is pretty sweet and savory right? I’ll add to my list. Thanks for your request! 🙂
Just made this tonight and it’s EXCELLENT! Thank you for the great recipe!
Hi June! Wonderful! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so happy you liked it! 🙂 xo
Hi Nami!
I have been following you for a very long time since leaving Japan. This dish reminded me of the various pastas I loved there and I couldn’t quite figure out what the secret ingredient was until now! It’s soy sauce! Thank you so much for your recipes. You have brought a lot of joy in my household.
Hi Dianne! Aww I’m so happy to hear you enjoy my recipes and thank you for your kind words! Now you can make different wafu pasta variation at home! 😉
I am simply astonished how much flavor is in this dish considering how simple and easy it is!!! Wow!!! 😱😱😱
I made mine with pork belly instead of bacon because I’m trying to limit my intake of processed meats for health reasons. I can only imagine how delicious it is with bacon!
Way to go, Nami! 👏💪
Hi Lion! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for trying it and for your kind feedback. Arigato for your kind feedback. xo
A chef friend recently introduced us to Wafu pasta so when I was looking for a mushroom pasta recipe to make tonight and saw that this was one, I knew I had to try it. Wow! What flavors and consistency! And you’re right – the soy sauce really IS the secret ingredient to this very umami dish! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe!
Hi Amy! I’m so happy to hear you learned about Wafu pasta and gave this recipe a try! Thank you for your kind feedback. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. And this week I’m sharing simple 3 Wafu pasta recipes. I hope you enjoy them too! xo
Hi Nami,
I love japanese wafu pasta and everytime I go to Japan, I’ll try to eat at least one atItalian restaurant…I have a question though, can I omit the roux making parts (butter and flour) and just use cream? Will it affect the taste? Arigatou!
Hi Fiona! You will be missing the flavor and the texture. It’s hard to achieve them with just heavy cream. 🙂
Oh my goodness, my family loved this recipe. Unable to get shimeji mushrooms, cremini mushrooms worked just fine. Shoyu added a lot of flavor. This recipe is a keeper!
Hi Tracy! I’m so happy to hear your family enjoyed this recipe! Yes, pretty much any mushrooms would work for this recipe. Thanks for trying this recipe and for your kind words!
Hi! Thanks so much for sharing! I was super excited to cook this because there’s this pasta place in little Tokyo, Los Angeles that serves my favorite Japanese/Italian Pasta and this did a good job mimicking that pasta! I made it with shrimp and added more soy sauce because I like the umami taste a lot. Unfortunately my grocery store only had baby Bella, white and enoki mushrooms… but, I will definitely try again with the proper ingredients. Thank you!
Hi Katrina! Thanks so much for trying this recipe! We have a lot of wafu pasta recipes in Japan and I hope you can make that at home! Soy sauce and butter are a great combination. 🙂
Today my grandfather passed away, and I was looking for a dish on your website that was comforting. This dish was exactly what I was looking for. It was so delicious. Thank you for sharing it with the world.
I’m terribly sorry for your loss. 🙁 I’m glad this dish brightened you a little… My condolences to you and your family on the passing of your grandfather.
I made this recipe for my family (I added chicken too) and we loved it! It was so delicious! Definitely, I will making this wafu pasta quite often. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Wonderful! So glad to hear you and your family enjoyed this recipe. Thank you so much for taking the time to write feedback. xoxo
Hi Nami!
I’m going to make this dish tonight, I love japanese carbonara but wanted something that wasn’t so cheesy! I can’t wait to make this 😀
Thank you for making so many great recipes and making them free!
Hi Rachel,
Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!😊
Just posting under a random wafu pasta recipe. I really enjoy buttered noodles as an easy, carb filled comfort food. After reading some of your wafu recipes, I was wondering if there was something similar, like miso-butter noodles, I could make? Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Taylor, How about “Miso Butter Pasta with Tuna and Cabbage” or “Creamy Miso Pasta with Tofu and Asparagus”? 🙂
https://www.justonecookbook.com/miso-butter-pasta-with-tuna-cabbage/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/creamy-miso-pasta-with-tofu-and-asparagus/
Why not use grams for the salt and just skip telling people to use less for table vs. Kosher?
Hi Bkhuna, We previously held a survey and asked our readers their preference in measuring condiments, majority of readers prefer to use salt in tsp than grams (including metric users). Our concern is mostly for table salt users as it’ll be significantly salty if they use the same amount as the amount Nami specifies in the recipe. Therefore, Nami provided the extra information. We hope this helps!🙂