Bell peppers, mushrooms and smoky sausage merge with ketchup to form a sauce for spaghetti that is familiar and unexpected.

Napolitan Spaghetti - Japanese Ketchup Spaghetti

Serves 4 - 5

To many, the idea of using ketchup as the base for a spaghetti sauce is very out of the ordinary especially if you grew up with a relatively heavy Italian-American influence as I did. However, if you allow yourself to remove your biases as I did you can see the beauty in how food from other cultures and countries is interpreted outside of their place of origin.

This is a simple pantry pasta that comes together in about 35 minutes. Bell peppers, mushrooms and smoky sausage merge with ketchup and my addition of dashima to create a sauce with lots of depth and flavor.

Ingredients

Pasta

**10g (2.5 in piece) dashima - optional

500g (a little more than 1 lb) spaghetti

Sauce

160g (0.50 c) ketchup

2 T soy sauce

2 T Tabasco sauce

5 t maesil or 4 t honey

5 t Worcestershire sauce

1 t ground black pepper

Saute

240g (a little more than 0.50 lb) smoked sausage links, cut into 0.25 in slices

200g (8 large) shiitake mushrooms, sliced 0.25 in thick

400g (2 medium) onions, sliced 0.25 in thick with the grain

8 garlic cloves, minced

1 – 2 cheongyang chili, minced

340g (0.75 lb) bell peppers, cut into 0.25 in thick strips

Finishing

21g (1.5 T) butter, cut into pieces and kept cold

Scallions, sliced

Recipe Know-how

1.      Fill a large pot with water and add the dashima.

• Cover and bring to a boil.

Continue on while the water comes to a boil.

2.      In a medium mixing bowl, combine the sauce ingredients mixing well.

• Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Set aside.

3.      Heat a large saute pan over medium-high.

• Add 1.5 t vegetable oil and heat for 30 seconds.

• Add the sausage and cook until golden brown, 1 – 2 minutes on each side.

• Remove to a plate and set aside, leaving any oil that may have come out of the sausage.

• Add the mushrooms and 0.25 t kosher salt and saute for 3 – 4 minutes or until golden brown.

If needed, add an additional 1.5 – 2 t of oil to help the mushrooms brown well.

• Remove to a plate and set aside.

• Add 1 t vegetable oil and the onions with a pinch of kosher salt.

• Saute for 3 – 4 minutes or until the onions are beginning to soften and color slightly.

• Add the garlic and chili and saute for 1 minute longer.

• Add the bell peppers and continue to saute for 2 minutes or until the peppers are beginning to wilt slightly.

• Add the mushrooms, sausage and reserved sauce. Cook stirring frequently for 90 seconds.

• Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

• Cover and keep warm off heat.

4.      Heavily salt the boiling water.

Do not remove the dashima before adding the pasta.

• Add the pasta and cook 2 minutes shorter than the package directions.

5.      Return the sauce to high heat and bring to a strong simmer.

• Add the butter, swiriling/stirring constantly until fully incorporated.

• Using tongs, add the pasta and 100g (0.50 c) pasta water to the pan.

• Toss well to coat the pasta with the sauce and incorporate the fillings.

If necessary, add additional pasta water to create a sauce that coats the pasta well.

6.      Serve topping with scallions.