Peperoncino Remade with Authentic Italian Ingredients: Can It Taste Great Without Added Umami?

In the previous video, Ryuji made two versions of peperoncino: one following the authentic method, and one with added umami. After a side-by-side tasting with staff, the verdict was that the version with umami was "many times more delicious." Ryuji now calls that video "an absolute bombshell" and says it provoked a great deal of resentment.

The most common comment was that "those ingredients won't make it taste good." Critics argued that it couldn't be called authentic peperoncino if it was made with Japanese ingredients. Ryuji accepted this with a "fair enough" and decided to make it this time with as many Italian ingredients as could be obtained in Japan. The two staff members present admitted frankly that, given how the last video went, they "weren't expecting much." Their reaction was skeptical: how much difference could good oil, good chili peppers and salt really make?

Last time, Ryuji used J-Oil Mills olive oil and similar products, but after being told that "the oil itself is different," this time a range of ingredients was purchased.

The salt is an Italian salt Ryuji used while working at an Italian restaurant years ago. The package says "sale," Italian for salt, and the grains are fairly coarse. There are versions with larger crystals, but this one is the easiest to use, according to Ryuji. Because it isn't very expensive, it is also used this time for the pasta cooking water.

As for the garlic, Ryuji admits that Italian garlic couldn't be found. Instead, Spanish garlic was chosen, since Spain is close to Italy. According to Ryuji, the package states that it contains 1.6 times as much allicin, the aroma compound, as Japanese garlic. Spanish garlic is red only on the surface of its skin, and the cloves are fairly small.

On whether Japanese or Spanish garlic tastes better, Ryuji thinks foreign garlic has a stronger aroma. Japanese garlic is suited to eating raw, and for dishes like foil-baked garlic, Japanese garlic is definitely better. For peperoncino, however, the more aromatic foreign garlic is "a good option," Ryuji says.

The chili peppers are "peperoncino piccolo." Although Italy is not their country of origin, they are commonly used in Italy, and Ryuji used them in Italy years ago. They are small but extremely hot, and as Ryuji remembers it, they are expensive at around 1,500 yen. When a staff member tried biting into one, the first reaction was that it had "strong umami and sweetness" and was "delicious," followed immediately by "it's really hot." According to Ryuji, two or three peppers are enough, so a pack lasts a long time.

For the pasta, Ryuji switched from the Japanese-made, roughly 1.5 mm Teflon-die pasta used last time to De Cecco's thin spaghetti. As far as Ryuji knows, De Cecco is Italy's number two pasta maker after Barilla. Because it is made with bronze dies, its surface is rough, which helps the oil cling to it. It is a well-known brand available at Kaldi and ordinary supermarkets. The package lists a cooking time of six minutes, but this time the pasta will be pulled out early and finished together with the sauce.

As for olive oil, many of the brands Ryuji used to buy are apparently no longer sold, because products come and go so quickly. The one chosen this time is a good olive oil costing around 3,000 to 4,000 yen, which Ryuji has recently been using as an everyday oil. Ryuji usually sautés with J-Oil Mills oil and then drizzles this oil on at the end, which greatly elevates the flavor of a dish. Since olive oil is the deciding factor in peperoncino, Ryuji expects it to do a lot of the work here.

Ryuji also says, "I'm desperate to make the authentic version win." The mood was that, with an "all-star lineup" like this, it would surely taste great.

This time, two servings are made so the dish looks good on camera. About 10 to 15 g of garlic is used per person. As before, the method follows the authentic approach, but since the ingredients are better, Ryuji expected it to be definitely more delicious than last time.

The garlic is minced. Ryuji considers mincing the best choice for an orthodox version. In conversation with the staff, however, Ryuji also notes that some people chop it coarsely and some use it whole, so "it really depends on the person."

Since no umami seasoning is used this time, the strategy is to add plenty of garlic to build umami. Ryuji stresses that the goal this time is to genuinely take Italy's side and make the dish good enough to earn a "delicious." Half-jokingly, Ryuji also said they didn't want the "sad result" that the best thing to do with peperoncino made from these ingredients is to add Ajinomoto.

Some comments suggested that "you just need to add anchovies." Ryuji dismisses this: anchovies would add umami and certainly make it tasty, but then it would no longer be peperoncino. In terms of adding umami, it would be the same as adding Ajinomoto.

The Italian parsley stems are sautéed partway through to release their aroma, and the leaves go in at the end. When a staff member mentioned having seen recipes where everything is sautéed together from the start, Ryuji replied that that, too, is a matter of preference.

The conversation also turned to Fabio, a cook known for pasta. According to Ryuji, Fabio's pasta follows Italian cuisine but also has an "unorthodox" side. Fabio adds fish and burns garlic to make it creamy, so Fabio isn't an Italian-cuisine fundamentalist. Fabio has also made a Jiro-style peperoncino, Ryuji says.

When Ryuji posted a Jiro-style peperoncino in a short video, someone commented, "Please stop copying Fabio." Ryuji says they had been making it before Fabio.

With that, Ryuji brought the conversation back to the point that what matters is having fun. Everyone must be curious how much better the dish can get with foreign ingredients. This isn't a fight, so let's have fun, Ryuji said, and toasted with white wine. Since peperoncino is a crisp, salty pasta, it goes well with white, Ryuji says. During the toast, Ryuji also mentioned that many people had been angry in the comments on the last video. Ryuji then added that good food is good food, so "you shouldn't deny other people's taste. If you do, your own taste will be denied too."

For two servings, 2 tablespoons of olive oil are used. The minced garlic goes into the cold oil and is cooked gently, "sizzling," without burning. The heat starts fairly high to warm the oil, then is turned down to low partway through, letting the garlic bubble gently to release its aroma. At one point Ryuji exclaimed, "The aroma is seriously different," saying Spanish garlic really does smell different.

The salt concentration of the pasta water is about 1%, which Ryuji describes as "about like a slightly strong soup." 200 g of pasta is pulled out at four minutes instead of the listed six.

The chili peppers are broken open before going in. Crushing them releases the seeds and makes the dish hotter, but you don't have to crush them, Ryuji says. Next, the Italian parsley stems go in. The stems are tough unless cooked, so they go in first. The garlic only needs to color lightly, because browning it too much produces a burnt aroma. At this point the heat is turned off for a moment.

On the pasta, Ryuji explained that De Cecco releases a lot of wheat starch, which thickens the sauce. Japanese pasta emphasizes how well the sauce clings and a chewy texture, but De Cecco is "slippery" rather than chewy, Ryuji says. It also has a good wheat flavor.

About two ladlefuls of pasta water go into the frying pan, then the pasta pulled out at four minutes is added and simmered together with it. This is how the starch is incorporated. Fabio often uses this technique too, but Ryuji says they have done it this way for a long time. Because De Cecco releases too much wheat starch, it isn't suited to one-pan pasta, Ryuji says. After adding about one more ladleful of pasta water and simmering, a generous amount of Italian parsley is added. The dish is finished with a drizzle of olive oil. Ryuji called it "the ultimate authentic peperoncino," made as close to the original ingredients as possible.

The staff who tasted it agreed that "this one is way more delicious" than last time. They praised how the garlic came through and how well the flavor of the olive oil showed. One also remarked that adding plenty of Italian parsley changes the flavor considerably.

As for things to improve, Ryuji said a bit more chili pepper would have been good, since it wasn't as hot as expected. A staff member suggested that chopping the chilies would bring out a bit more heat. So the first thing confirmed was that peperoncino made seriously with authentic ingredients does taste delicious.

Next, prefacing it with "I'm about to do something really nasty," Ryuji added three shakes of Ajinomoto to the same pasta and asked for another comparison.

The staff reacted with "totally different" and "the flavor is completely different." The verdict was not one-sided, however. One staff member said the version with umami was more delicious but added that "both are delicious." The other also said both were delicious and hard to choose between. Forced to pick one, they would choose the Ajinomoto version, but there are times they would want the first one. There was also a comment that the version without umami was "really, really good." Ryuji also said that, if anything, the version with umami has a more easily understood flavor.

Following these results, Ryuji explained the point of the video. Umami is not the "undisputed champion." Adding umami tends to make a dish more to Japanese tastes, but that just makes it a different flavor, Ryuji says. There's room for dishes that hold back on umami, and they deserve recognition. Not everything is delicious just because it contains umami. Ryuji said this was the message they wanted to convey with this video.

One staff member offered the view that it depends on the situation. If a single plate is the whole meal, the version with umami might be better. But if the pasta is one of many dishes on the table, the version without umami might go better with the other dishes.

Ryuji agreed. When Japanese people eat peperoncino, it is usually a meal in itself, as in "peperoncino for lunch today." People in Italy, on the other hand, don't often eat peperoncino on its own; they eat it with other dishes. Ryuji speculates that this may be why having less umami isn't a problem there. In conclusion, which tastes better depends on the situation. Ryuji wrapped up by saying, "Peperoncino made seriously with authentic ingredients is delicious."

In the latter part of the talk, the discussion turned to how people comment about taste. Ryuji uses strong words to criticize people who call those with different opinions "baka-jita" (dumb palate), saying they're "kind of stupid," because they don't understand that everyone is different. It's a way of speaking that completely rejects a person's identity and how they perceive things, so it doesn't fit the Reiwa era, Ryuji says. Japan has a culture of saying "that person doesn't understand flavor," but that doesn't fit the current era either, Ryuji says.

What Ryuji has observed is that people who don't fuss much about authenticity and naturally eat whatever tastes good, accepting that good food is good food, are the ones least likely to look down on others. Ryuji sees in people who say "dumb palate" a kind of bias or one-upmanship, a sense that they're different from others and on a higher level when it comes to taste. Because they're rejecting other people's impressions, it's "pretty lame," Ryuji says. At the same time, Ryuji added that they personally like people like that, but such people are disliked in this day and age.

Ryuji went on to analyze why such people react so strongly. They have spent money and built up knowledge to eat better things. When someone who isn't particularly discerning says, "This is tasty too," they feel as though everything they've done so far has been rejected. When the idea that you can make delicious peperoncino with just salt is challenged, it amounts to rejecting everything they've built up. So they may get angry out of a loss of identity, according to Ryuji's reading. Ryuji then called on people to relax a little, since this is a matter of perception, not identity.

Ryuji also says they have seen comments like "Anyone who thinks Ryuji's Buzz Recipes are tasty has a dumb palate" "hundreds of millions of times." Ryuji says this isn't being said in self-defense; that way of talking is simply lame.

A staff member mentioned someone who often says food tastes better without too much umami (the name is inaudible in the subtitles). Ryuji responded that you won't get there unless you have a great deal of food experience. Without considerable study, you won't notice the appeal of low-umami dishes. Honestly, it's fine not to notice, and few people do, Ryuji says.

Ryuji says that, honestly, they aren't very fond of dishes aimed at flavors only a small number of people can appreciate. Ryuji likes food that everyone finds "delicious," so they basically add umami. But such flavors that only a few can appreciate do exist, and Ryuji actually likes dishes like that too. Even so, Ryuji doesn't recommend them to others, because people would say they're not tasty. Ryuji said that the feeling of "but I think it's delicious" is also important in cooking.

Finally, Ryuji brought up a line from a manga saying that "the hamburger is the best-selling food in the world, so it must be the most delicious food in the world," and asked the staff for their opinion. The staff replied, "Isn't it different for everyone?" and "Calling it the world's best is a different matter."

Ryuji says the issue is who decides what's the world's best in the first place. Saying "the most delicious food in the world" assumes that a single such thing exists. In reality, 100 people have 100 different answers, and they're all different. If you had to pick one, it would be the hamburger, the most eaten food in the world, but that's merely a matter of statistics. The truly most delicious food in the world exists within each individual, so it may be better not to dismiss that too much. With these words, Ryuji closed the video.