This is my current lazy-day meal. It takes about 10 minutes to assemble this one-pot recipe which combines the lusciousness of Alfredo sauce with the richness of flavor brought by a handful of classic Japanese ingredients1.

Ingredients (single serving):

  • 1 pack of instant noodles2,
  • roughly 30 grams of butter,
  • a similar amount, by volume, of grated parmesan,
  • freshly grated black pepper,
  • chili flakes to taste,
  • furikake to taste,
  • bonito flakes3 to taste.

Preparation:

Pasta

  • put the pasta in water and get it boiling4 until cooked to your taste,
  • reserve5 the pasta in a colander.

Sauce

  • in the same pot, having cut the heat6, drop the butter, parmesan, black pepper, and chili flakes,
  • add the pasta and mix vigorously until well combined.

Assembly

  • transfer the pasta to a bowl,
  • sprinkle with furikake to taste,
  • add a generous amount of bonito flakes on top.

Credits:

This recipe was born of the leftovers of Jason Farmer’s Japanese Loaded French Fries.

  1. I do realize that buying furikake and bonito flakes solely for this dish makes little sense. But once you have them in your pantry, they stay good pretty much forever, and you can use them for a wide array of dishes. ↩︎

  2. I buy flat Asian, tagliatelle-like, noodles in bulk. They are not fried, unlike a lot of instant noodles, but still cook in less than 10 minutes. Classic instant noodles, Italian-style pasta, and even fresh pasta, would also work. ↩︎

  3. Their smoky fishy flavor is best described as fish bacon. ↩︎

  4. No need to start with boiling water. Putting the pasta straight into the water will get the dish done faster. ↩︎

  5. You could also leave them in the pot if you drained them without colander, it is fine. ↩︎

  6. The residual heat in the pasta should be enough; any high heat would prevent the emulsion of the butter and cheese. ↩︎