Diep Tran’s Buttered Pasta With Dried Shrimp And Sake

With just six ingredients and a sauce that comes together in the time it takes to boil spaghetti, this pasta delivers surprising depth for relatively little effort. This recipe takes its inspiration from mentaiko pasta, a Japanese dish of spaghetti tossed in sake-marinated cod roe. In lieu of the cod roe, I use dried shrimp, something I always have in my pantry, and combine it with sake and butter before reducing it to a glossy sauce. Consider the color and size of your dried shrimp. They should be bright orange, and preferably have been stored in the refrigerated section of the market. For the sake, I personally like junmai sake for its clarity of flavor, but you can use any type except for cooking sake, which doesn’t quite have the complexity and depth of flavor that would benefit this dish.

How to choose dried shrimp and sake for this recipe