Mentaiko (明太子), Myeongranjeot(명란젓) is the marinated roe of pollock and cod, and it is a common ingredient in Korean cuisine and Japanese cuisine (source from Wikipedia). You can find Mentaiko in the frozen section of any Asian market easily. Instead of eating mentaiko with rice, I’ve made mentaiko pasta with chives and clams.
First, make a clam broth
Clean clams in cold water with salt → bring them to boil → when they are open, take out all the clams and rinse them in cold water to make sure there isn’t any sand left (throw out unopened one, they are bad!) → Pour all the broth into another bowl leaving all the sands in the bottom behind→ Pour filtered broth and cleaned clams into a pot again → Add 3 Cups of cold water and boil again in a medium low heat
Get rid of all the foams while clams are boiling
In a meantime, boil pasta with a pinch of salt. Cooking minutes vary depending on what kinds of pasta you are cooking. (Tip 1) if it says boil for 12 minutes, I would only boil for 10 minutes since I am going to cook it with the sauce again later (Tip 2) After boiling dried pasta, rinse them in cold water. Drizzle 1t spoon of olive oil, a pinch of black pepper and salt. This keeps noodles from getting dried and more flavorful
Toast minced garlic first and then mentaiko into a heated pan. Stir them until they turn into brown and pale pink
(Tip 3) Peel mentaiko skin to make stirring easier
Put chopped chives, and clams
Pour 4T of clam broth and stir for 2-3 minutes
Pour 1T spoon of cooking white wine and bring it to simmer until the alcohol is gone
(Tips 4) if you don’t have any cooking wine, any drinkable white alcohol such as sake or soju is fine
Boil for 3-5 minutes
Pour cooked pasta into the pan, stir for a few minutes so as to let noodles absorb delicious sauce
(Tip 5) I found a little bit of jalapeno goes well with mentaiko pasta. I’ve put 1/4 of chopped jalapeno at the end. If you don’t like spicy, skip jalapeno
Drizzle 1 cups of finely chopped scallions and serve with freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
I would say this mentaiko pasta is more flavorful and has more texture than regular bongole pasta. And I just love the spicy kick of jalapeno with the juice, noodle and cheese all together
Bon appetit !
Since my recipe below is for 1 person, calculate well depending how many persons you are cooking for!
- *For 1 person
- pasta noodle 90g
- mentaiko (Iow sodium if possible) 30g
- chives 60g
- littleneck clams 7-10 units
- big clams 1-2 units
- minced jalapeno ¼ of a medium size
- minced garlic 1T
- (For sauce and seasoning)
- canola oil 1T
- olive oil 1t
- clam broth 4T
- white wine 1T
- chopped scallions 1T
- parmigiano reggiano 1T for finishing touch
- salt and pepper for seasoning
- Sit frozen mentaiko in a room temperature for 15 minutes
- (since mentaiko has to be fresh, it is usually stored in the fridge and served on the table after defrost it for 15-30 mins)
- Make a clam broth (more details above)
- In another pot, boil dried pasta
- In a meantime, cut chives into 4cm, mince garlic & jalapeno, and chop scallions into small pieces
- Toast minced garlic first and then mentaiko into the pan and stir well for 2-3 minutes
- Put chives then clams stir for a few seconds
- Pour 4T of clam broth and stir for 2-3 minutes
- Pour white wine and bring it to simmer until the alcohol is gone
- Put a little bit of jalapeno and black pepper for seasoning (I did not put any salt since mentaiko is pretty salty)
- Garnish with parmigiano reggiano and scallions