Spaghetti Boscaiola alla Giapponese: A fantastic encounter between Italy and Japan

Mamoru Kataoka, the owner and chef of Ristorante AlPorto, was in high school when he first encountered Italian cuisine.

One day he ate pasta alla carbonara, brought to his house by his mother, who worked as a housekeeper in the house of a diplomat. Although it had gotten cold, he was impressed by the pasta which “tasted so good”.

When the diplomat was posted to Milan as consul general, Kataoka accompanied him as a cook. It was then that he promised himself to “become a pasta master”. He was around 20 years old at the time.

In Milan, he honed his culinary skills by learning at the consul general’s favorite restaurants, who was a gourmet, as well as at the homes of acquaintances.

The intensive training session on cooking Italian dishes for lunch and Japanese dishes for dinner for the Consul General continued.

Since guests at the official residence were often served Japanese dishes, he prepared tempura, sukiyaki, and “unagi no kabayaki” (eel prepared into fillets, skewered, seasoned with sweet soy sauce-based marinade, and grilled). ), as well as sweets like “kintsuba”, a Japanese sweet.

“So my culinary taste is a mix of Italian and Japanese cuisine, ‘wa-itarian’ (Japanese-style Italian),” he said.

The chef also visited reputable restaurants in various locations.

One that remains in his memory offered spaghetti alla boscaiola, which he tried in Rome. “Boscaiola” is an Italian word meaning “woodcutter style”. While wondering what kind of spaghetti it was, he was served a tomato-based spaghetti with tuna and porcini, a kind of mushroom.

Delighted with the porcini and tuna combination that was new to him, he noticed that an approximate cooking procedure was printed on the back of the menu. He brought the recipe and made it repeatedly until he had it down.

In the recipe featured this week, he added a Japanese flavor in the form of shimeji mushrooms. You can also use a combination of maitake, shiitake, and eryngii mushrooms.

“Depending on the combination of ingredients, pasta sauces have endless potential. I think my life started with pasta and will end with pasta,” says Kataoka, whose research on pasta sauces is far from over.

Born in Tokyo in 1948, Mamoru Kataoka is the owner and chef of an Italian restaurant. In 1968, after training at the Tsukiji Tamura Japanese cuisine restaurant for three months, he flew to Italy as cook to the consul general. He opened Ristorante AlPorto in 1983.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main Ingredients (For one person)

• 80 grams of pasta
• 1/4 onion finely chopped. 
• 1/4 package of shimeji mushrooms
• 8 grams of dried boletus
• 15 grams of canned tuna in oil
• 1 teaspoon chopped capers
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 garlic clove finely chopped
• 1 chili pod without seeds
• 1/2 tablespoon of red wine
• 1/2 cups whole canned tomato
• some chopped parsley
• a little salt and black pepper

1. Reconstitute the porcini in 50 cc of water and cut them into 1 cm cubes. Reserve the water used to dip the porcini. Separate the shimeji into smaller groups.

2. Add olive oil, garlic, and chili to a skillet and place over low heat. Cook until garlic turns golden. Add the onion and sauté slowly for about 30 minutes over low heat until light brown.

3. Add porcini and shimeji mushrooms to No. 2 and lightly sauté. Add the tuna and capers and mix. Pour in the red wine and evaporate the alcohol.

4. Add tomato while blending. Add the water used to reconstitute the porcini and parsley and mix. Slowly reduce and sprinkle with salt and black pepper to taste.

5. Cook the pasta al dente according to the instructions on the bag. Add to No. 4 and mix. Serve on a plate and sprinkle with parsley.

About 645 kcal and 2.9 grams of salt per serving. Enjoy!