Wafū Mushroom Pasta

Step 1

Cook pasta as per the instruction on the package. Cooking time should be 1 minute less than the instructed time. Reserve a couple of tablespoons of pasta water before draining.

Step 2

Shiitake: Remove the stem and slice thinly into 3mm / ⅛" thick pieces.

Step 3

Enoki: Cut the woody stem at the bottom so that you can separate stems easily. Most enoki mushrooms come with quite long stems. Cut them in half to make them 4-5cm / 2" long.

Step 4

King oyster/King trumpet: The size of king oyster mushrooms can vary greatly. If they are large like mine, halve them lengthways, then have them vertically before slicing each piece into 3mm / ⅛" thick pieces.

Step 5

Shimeji: Cut the bottom of the clustering stems so that each stem can be separated easily. Small and short mushrooms can be grouped together to make them similar size to the large shimeji mushrooms.

Step 6

Oyster: Starting from the cap, tear the flesh vertically with fingers into strips.

Step 7

Heat olive oil in a frying pan over low heat and add the garlic. Cook the garlic to infuse garlic flavour until brown patches start appearing around the garlic pieces (note 6). Remove the garlic pieces and discard.

Step 8

Bring the heat up to medium. Add bacon to the pan and sauté until the fat becomes transparent.

Step 9

Add mushrooms and chilli to the pan and reduce the heat to low. Sauté until the mushrooms are wilted and cooked through.

Step 10

Add the pasta, all the flavouring ingredients and 1-2 tablespoons of reserved pasta water to the pan. Mix well quickly.

Step 11

Transfer the pasta to serving plates, scatter green onion pieces over the pasta, then scatter nori strips on top. Serve while hot.