Ketchup Is The Unexpected Star Of This Retro Japanese Pasta - Tasting Table

"Walk into any Japanese restaurant in the U.S. and you probably have a good idea of what's going to feature on the menu. Beloved dishes such as sushi, teriyaki, tempura, and ramen have all made their way into everyday dining halfway across the world from where they were first created. What you're less likely to find however, is what's known as yoshoku, aka dishes inspired by Western cuisine that are given an undeniably Japanese twist."

"The dish is believed to have been invented by chef Irie Shigetada at Yokohama's New Grand Hotel in the 1950s. He was reportedly inspired by the American soldiers eating simple meals of spaghetti and ketchup and sought to make an elevated version using tomato purée that would be more worthy of a hotel menu. But, after the war, certain ingredients became costly or hard to find, and it was copycat versions using ketchup that began to spread, quickly becoming a staple of Japanese coffee houses."

"Although the name of the dish is a nod to Italian pasta dishes, the technique is wholly Japanese, made in the style of a fried noodle dish such as yaki udon. Spaghetti is cooked until very soft, then left to chill for a chewier texture (sometimes even overnight!). The vegetables are sautéed in oil, along with sliced smoked sausages or ham. The pasta is then added to the frying pan to heat through, with the ketchup added as the final step."

Napolitan is a yoshoku-style Japanese pasta made of spaghetti coated in a ketchup-based sauce with sausage, bell peppers, onions, and often mushrooms. Chef Irie Shigetada at Yokohama's New Grand Hotel created a tomato purée version in the 1950s after observing American soldiers' simple spaghetti-and-ketchup meals; later wartime shortages and cost led copycat ketchup-based versions to proliferate in Japanese coffee houses. The preparation involves cooking spaghetti until very soft, chilling it for chewiness, sautéing vegetables and smoked sausage or ham, then stir-frying the pasta and finishing with ketchup. Western culinary influence increased after Japan reopened in 1868 and the ban on red meat was lifted.

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