Easy Miso Pasta

 

Sometimes dinner is to impress, and most times, dinner is just something to "get done" so I don't have to think about what to make for dinner as the hours keep ticking by. This is an easy dish that takes about 5 minutes longer than it takes to get the water boiling and cooking the pasta. I like the umami funk and smell of this. I served it with leftover veggies but baked bread might be good with this too. Also, I don't seem to have furikake in my pantry, however, that would be good to put on the pasta.

The original recipe is from NY Times Five-Ingredient Creamy Miso Pasta by Alexa Weibel

Ingredients:

• Sea salt for pasta water (save some pasta water for the sauce)
• 16 oz long pasta like linguine or spaghetti
• 6 T butter
• 3 T white miso (if red miso is used, make sure butter is unsalted)
• 4 oz Parmesan
• pepper, red pepper to taste, furikake, nori (optional)

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Reserve 1 1/2 cups pasta water, then drain the pasta.
2. In the same drained pot, over medium, medium low heat, add the butter. I used some of the pasta water to break down the miso in a separate bowl, then added the rest of the pasta water and miso to the melting butter. When the liquid is uniform in the pot, add the pasta and coat pasta with sauce. Turn off heat, add Parmesan and stir vigorously with tongs to emulsify sauce.

Notes:

Once adding the Parmesan, this is a similar technique and recipe for the Instant Pot Cacio e Pepe so this probably can also be made in the Instant Pot, but it is so fast and it still just uses the one pot (unless you count the pasta drainer).