Before my honeymoon in Japan, I’d never tried Italian-Japanese fusion cooking. In hindsight, those meals stand out as favourites of the trip. Pizza Marumo blends Neapolitan-style dough with Japanese toppings – one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten – and Menchirashi, where we braved the queues for the udon carbonara. After trying it, we understood the hype.
Carbonara is a misunderstood dish, in part because people can’t seem to resist messing with its core components. When done right – when melted pork fat (usually from guanciale or pancetta) is used to emulsify Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano and eggs into a gloriously creamy sauce – carbonara is a study in poise and precision, albeit indulgent. I can understand why some bristle when cooks add cream or garlic or other non-classic ingredients to carbonara. Usually they’re gilding the lily.
But this carbonara, despite not adhering to those strictures, was less a bad riff and more a loving tribute that used local ingredients judiciously. The udon especially, bouncy and spry, was arguably a better vehicle for the sauce than spaghetti.
Consider this month’s recipe, then, my own loving tribute to non-traditional udon carbonara. To take the fusion element further, I whisked just enough white miso paste into my egg-yolk-and-Parmigiano base to add umami and funk. I also swapped the guanciale for larger pork belly pieces, which I rendered, then tossed in a quick soy glaze. I garnished it all with black pepper, spring onions, furikake and more Parmigiano.
The result is unabashedly rich, which is where an old-school imperial IPA like Garage Project’s legendary Pernicious Weed steps in. Amber-hued and bracingly bitter, it’s an ideal foil, sawing right through the carbonara’s salt and fat. I find West Coast-style DIPAs like this one go particularly well with grilled meat and umami flavours, so it also vibes with the pork belly and miso. This pairing, with its Japanese-Italian fusion dish and its New Zealand beer, may never please the traditionalists. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Udon Carbonara
Adapted from W2 Kitchen
Serves 2
For the pork belly:
250g pork belly slices
Fine sea salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
For the udon:
1 egg
2 egg yolks
50g Parmigiano Reggiano
1 ½ tablespoons white miso paste
Freshly ground black pepper
Fine sea salt
500g frozen udon noodles (you could also use shelf-stable udon, but its texture is softer)
To garnish:
Freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Freshly ground black pepper
Furikake (optional)
Sliced spring onions
1. First, prepare the pork belly. If the slices you purchased were roughly 1-inch thick, like mine, then carefully halve each one to yield two thinner slices. Cut each slice into four smaller pieces. Season lightly on both sides with fine sea salt and set aside for half an hour.
2. Next, place a large frying pan over medium-low heat and add the oil. Once hot, turn the heat down to its lowest setting, and add the pork belly pieces in a single layer. Cook for 15-20 minutes, pausing to flip the pieces every few minutes. The goal is to cook them low and slow, so they render out as much fat as possible, and turn evenly crisp and brown.
3. Meanwhile, while the pork cooks, mix together the soy sauce, rice vinegar and honey in a ramekin, stirring until uniform. Once the pork belly pieces are cooked, drain off the fat into a separate bowl and reserve (you will be left with more than you need for this recipe), but keep the meat in the pan. Place the pan over medium heat and add the soy sauce mixture; it should sizzle vigorously. Cook for roughly 1 minute, tossing frequently, or until the pork pieces are lightly coated in the soy glaze and the liquid has otherwise evaporated off. Transfer the pork belly pieces to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain and wipe out the pan.
4. Next, in a large, heat-safe mixing bowl that fits neatly on top of a medium saucepan – you’ll use it for a double-boiler later – add the egg and egg yolks, and whisk until uniform. Using a microplane, grate the Parmigiano Reggiano over the bowl, and whisk into the eggs; the mixture may look slightly lumpy. Next, whisk in the miso paste until fully incorporated, then add a generous amount of black pepper. Set aside.
5. Bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil and season lightly with fine sea salt. Once boiling, add the frozen udon noodles. Cook according to package instructions, typically for 2-3 minutes, or until the water is once again boiling and the noodles are just tender.
6. Meanwhile, while the noodles cook, add 1-2 tablespoons of the reserved pork fat to the frying pan, and place over low heat on an adjacent burner. Once hot, add the reserved pork pieces, and toss quickly to warm and coat in the fat.
7. Once the udon has finished cooking, keep the saucepan of water on the stove over low heat. Use tongs to directly transfer the noodles to the frying pan with the pork; don’t worry about shaking off any excess water. Cook for a minute, tossing frequently, or until the noodles are coated in the pork fat.
8. Slowly add a ladleful of the pasta cooking water to the reserved egg yolk mixture, whisking vigorously to incorporate; this helps temper the eggs. Quickly pour the egg yolk mixture into the frying pan with the noodles and pork, and use the tongs to constantly toss and mix it, to prevent the sauce breaking or scrambling.
9. After just one minute in the pan, pour the saucy noodles back into the mixing bowl that you used for the eggs and Parmigiano. Place it over the saucepan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water’s surface), and, using the tongs, vigorously toss and mix for another minute. This process helps the sauce properly thicken and emulsify so it coats the noodles, and means the eggs are also less likely to scramble than if you cooked the noodles directly over the stove.
10. Once ready, divide the noodles between pasta bowls. Garnish with freshly grated black pepper and Parmigiano Reggiano, and a sprinkle of furikake, if using. Top with the sliced spring onions and serve immediately.
Claire M Bullen is a professional food and travel writer, a beer hound and all-around lover of tasty things. You can follow her at @clairembullen. For more recipes like this, sign up to our HB&B All Killer No Filler beer subscription - you'll receive Claire's recipe and food pairings, plus expert tasting notes, with 10 world-class beers like this one every month.