Celebrity personality, Chrissy Teigen, has amassed quite the following on her social media and her recipes are also very popular. Her fusion dish of Spicy Miso Pasta is no different. This unique dish combines both Italian and Asian-inspired ingredients to create a one-of-a-kind dish that has all the flavors including the 5th flavor element – umami – known as the salty-sweet flavor in dishes. Likened to a carbonara, the sauce comes together and is given its creaminess using eggs as well. It’s a fairly simple dish to make and with some great flavors and some spice, it really packs a punch.
Here is the recipe along with a few tips for this dish:
Chrissy Teigen’s Spicy Miso Pasta
Ingredients
- ¾ pounds spaghetti
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 ounces bacon, thick-cut, diced
- 3 tablespoons chili garlic sauce
- 2 tablespoons light miso paste
- 3 eggs
- 2 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, finely grated
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup scallions, sliced
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Once boiling, cover and keep on a low heat.
- In a large saucepan, heat olive oil oven over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook it until it’s nice and crispy (about 9-10 minutes). Remove from the heat.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk the miso, chili garlic sauce, and some water from the pot until you get a nice smooth consistency.
- Add in the egg and whisk until fully incorporated. Set aside.
- In the post, cook the pasta and drain 1 minute before the time indicated on the package instructions. Reserve about 1/2 cup of pasta water.
- Add the pasta to the saucepan with the bacon, over medium high heat. Once everything is really hot, remove the pan from the heat and pour in the miso/egg mixture. Give it a quick mix and slide it out of the pan before the eggs start to scramble.
- Add in the cheese and pasta water until you like the consistency.
- Add salt and pepper to taste, garnish with scallions, and serve.
Nutrition Estimate
1. Where to Find Certain Ingredients
The ingredients can most often be found in your local grocery store, but there are a couple that may be hard to find. Nowadays it seems ingredients from other cuisines are easily found in your grocery store – for this recipe those ingredients include: Chili Garlic Sauce, Sambal Oelek, and Miso Paste. Some may even live near enough to an Asian Market and you could also get those ingredients there as well. But, if you have trouble finding any of them, they can also be purchased online here. If you can’t find chili garlic sauce try red pepper flakes with some garlic!
2. Use Hot Pasta Water for the Sauce
Once you boil your water for your pasta, make sure to reserve about a cup of the hot pasta water (though you’ll only use about 1/2 cup). You will want to use this boiling water and pour it over the miso sauce mixture. The heat from the boiling water will help to dissolve the miso paste, making it easier to mix with your other ingredients and will help to bind your sauce together.
3. Bacon Alternatives
Cooking bacon can sometimes be a pain. While the recipe calls for bacon, this would work really well with cubed pancetta as it’s already cut up – you just won’t have the smokiness that the bacon adds. Chopped prosciutto or even ham could easily work as well if you had that on hand as well.
4. Removing the Oil from the Bacon
If you cook the bacon in the 2 tablespoons of oil (per the instructions), you might end up with a lot of oil. If you feel you have too much, feel free to remove some oil from the pan before you add your other ingredients in. This will help to avoid your end dish from being too oily.
5. Adjust the Spice Level
The chili garlic sauce, Sambal Oelek, and chili flakes can be spicy. If you have a low spice tolerance, maybe start with just one tablespoon and make sure you are able to tolerate it first.
Remember that you can always add the extra chili garlic sauce at the end, and it will still mix into your pasta just fine. If making this for children who don’t like any spice, we recommend adding a tablespoon of tomato paste instead to give it that other flavor dimension.
6. Ideas for Additions
While this recipe has the protein from the eggs and the bacon, you might need a little more oomph in your meal. You can certainly add proteins on top of a bed of this pasta, such as grilled chicken or fish. Fish and miso go really well together. While the recipe suggests topping with green onions, you could certainly add cherry tomatoes or some broccoli to it as well.
7. Serve with Bread
Bread is the vehicle used to wipe up all the leftover sauce on your plate. The sauce is definitely yummy and different with the miso and spice, and it sure does taste yummy on bread. Chrissy mentioned that this is a must-have part of the meal!
We hope that these tips will help you when making this Spicy Miso Pasta. Let us know if you give it a try and if you make any changes or substitutions.
If you like this post, we think you’ll really like our Spicy Miso Pasta recipe post.
