Chef Tsutomu Ochiai Teaches Ryuji a Tomato-Juice Arrabbiata, and the Story Behind "Disgraziata"

Chef Ochiai began by explaining that aglio, olio e peperoncino is a fundamental dish and that it would also serve as the base for the day's arrabbiata. He then told a story from his first trip to Italy.

The first chef who taught him in Rome told Chef Ochiai, "You must never put cheese in aglio, olio e peperoncino." Looking at the other cooks around him, he saw that none of them did. But when he went to a restaurant in a different region, the pasta of the day was arrabbiata, and it had a huge amount of cheese in it. He ate it thinking, "But the chef in Rome said you weren't supposed to add it," and it was delicious. Change the region and the way of cooking changes too. Chef Ochiai recalls that this made him realize there are many different ways of doing things in Italy.

The ingredients are garlic and chili peppers. According to Chef Ochiai, arrabbiata means "angry," and the dish apparently got its name because it is so spicy it makes you angry. So while last time's peperoncino used one chili, this time he increased it to two.

This time the garlic is minced fairly finely. The method Chef Ochiai recommends is to smash the garlic with the bottom of a can or jar and then cut it. This makes it easy to get a coarse mince. This time he had already peeled the garlic, but he says it is ideally crushed before peeling. Ryuji responded, "I do it Chef Ochiai's way, too." Chef Ochiai joked back, "Just tell people, 'I came up with this and taught it to Ochiai.'"

He added quite a generous amount of olive oil. When Ryuji asked whether it was more than 2 tablespoons, Chef Ochiai answered, "A little over two." At this stage, he had Ryuji start boiling the pasta.

Last time, the chili was added after the garlic had taken on some color. This time the garlic was minced and would cook quickly, so the chili went in together with it from the start.

Chef Ochiai had originally prepared canned tomatoes. But for a single serving, a whole can would be too much, so he said he had intended to use half. When Ryuji asked whether tomato juice would work, Chef Ochiai replied, "Absolutely." Ideally it should be one without salt, and Ryuji had unsalted tomato juice on hand. So this time they decided to make the sauce with tomato juice alone. Chef Ochiai's explanation was that both canned whole tomatoes and tomato juice are tomatoes to begin with.

If you use half a can, you don't know what to do with the rest, but with juice that is less of a worry. Chef Ochiai said, "If there's any left, let's drink it tomorrow," and Ryuji laughed, "You're saying the same kind of thing as Buzz Recipe."

During cooking, Chef Ochiai turned off the heat several times and used the residual heat. Cooking isn't something you can do just by following the measurements, he says; the most important thing is heat control. He also gave examples of how to handle things when they are about to burn, such as cooling the pan with a damp cloth.

Right after the tomato juice goes in, the sauce is thin and watery. Chef Ochiai urged Ryuji to look at the center of the pan. Even if you briefly run something across the bottom of the pan and leave a line, while there is still a lot of liquid it closes up immediately and disappears. When the line stays visible, the sauce is done, Chef Ochiai explains. High heat is fine here; the goal is to evaporate the water. The more water cooks off, the more concentrated the tomato becomes, and it turns into a sauce, he says.

According to Chef Ochiai, reduction is a very important technique in both French and Italian cooking. Sometimes a sauce can look like it is just the right thickness without reducing it. But that leaves it lacking. Reduce it until you think, "I've reduced it a bit too much," then thin it out with water. That is Chef Ochiai's philosophy.

The change in sound is also a guide. At first, because the sauce has a lot of liquid, it sounds almost the same as the water in the pot next to it. As the water cooks off, the sizzling sound grows livelier. You can tell by the sound, too, that "a good amount of the water has evaporated," he says.

Partway through, Chef Ochiai realized he had forgotten to add salt, and added it, saying, "On the lighter side is good." When he turned off the heat, the sauce had thickened, and the line in the center of the pan stayed clearly visible. When Chef Ochiai asked, "Would you think this was tomato juice?" Ryuji replied, "No, I wouldn't."

Ryuji checked the firmness of the pasta. At the restaurant they normally use basilico, but if you buy it for home, you end up with leftovers you don't know what to do with. So this time they used shiso. It can be chopped roughly, and they included the bottom part near the stem as well.

When combining the pasta with the sauce, the heat starts out fairly strong. Chef Ochiai warned Ryuji to be careful because the chilies were hidden in the pan. Once everything was well coated, he turned off the heat, added the shiso, and sprinkled on Parmigiano.

For when you don't have Parmigiano, Chef Ochiai suggested substitutes for home cooks. Processed cheese like 6P cheese wedges is fine, and he thinks tearing up thin square cheese slices and adding them would also be delicious. Either way, the cheese goes in "fairly generously." Even when Ryuji was surprised at how much it was, Chef Ochiai had him add more, saying, "It can take more."

To finish, olive oil is drizzled over. He says it's good to add olive oil both at the start and at the end. Pepper is up to personal taste, but because of the heat from the chilies, Chef Ochiai said he thinks you don't need it.

What they made is an arrabbiata with shiso and cheese added. At Chef Ochiai's restaurant, this is apparently served under the name "Disgraziata." Ryuji called it "Chef Ochiai's misunderstanding pasta."

Chef Ochiai learned this dish in Italy, brought it back to Japan under the name he had been taught, and served it at his restaurant. Then an Italian customer told him, "That's a bit of a strange name for a pasta." Puzzled, since that was the name he thought he had been taught, he looked up the meaning and found it meant "you're unlucky" or "you have no luck."

Thinking it over, something came to mind. As in the story at the beginning, Chef Ochiai had been told in Rome, "Don't add cheese." So when he saw pasta with cheese in it, he asked, "There's something this delicious? What's it called? I had no idea." What the other person said in reply was "Disgraziato." It meant: you're unlucky for never having known something this delicious until now. Chef Ochiai had taken that word to be the name of the pasta, he says.

After tasting it, Ryuji said the shiso didn't feel out of place at all and went really well. In Italy, the combination of tomato and basilico (pomodoro e basilico) is the classic, and shiso is, so to speak, "Japanese basilico," he said. His impression was that the amount of cheese and the saltiness were spot on, and the heat of the chilies came through clearly. Chef Ochiai added that there was twice as much chili as last time.

During the tasting, Chef Ochiai repeatedly emphasized, "It's tomato juice." He also said that in a setting like this, he thinks tomato juice is actually better. His reasoning was that people who aren't good at cooking are surely watching this channel too. The staff also tasted it, pointing to the presence of the shiso as well as the balance of heat, umami, and the richness of the olive oil and cheese.

After the tasting, Chef Ochiai presented Ryuji with a La Bettola chef's coat. He asked Ryuji's real name, and when Ryuji answered "Ryuji (竜士)," Chef Ochiai wrote "Chef Ryuji" on it. He also signed the coat he himself had worn that day, with tomato sauce splattered here and there, and gave that to Ryuji as well. Chef Ochiai laughed, "Pardon me for being in my underwear."

Explaining why he was giving these, Chef Ochiai said the following. From now on, he wants Ryuji to help viewers enjoy Italian cooking even more. So that people will think, "Wow, you can make something this delicious so easily if you do it Ryu-chan's way." He said he had given his endorsement to that.

Ryuji accepted them with tears streaming down his face. He said that after doing cooking for a long time, it makes him truly happy when people come along who teach him because they want everyone to properly learn and enjoy the food. Chef Ochiai told him, "You can make delicious pasta now." The two put on the coats, linked arms, and posed for a commemorative photo.

After filming, the two looked back on how this collaboration came about. Ryuji said he has read all of Chef Ochiai's books and has drawn on them. Upon hearing that Ryuji had been saying he respected him, Chef Ochiai apparently said right away, "I want to meet him." Ryuji, for his part, revealed that he had felt too intimidated to reach out himself.

Ryuji said that his motivation for cooking had dropped a bit lately, but it had come back today. Chef Ochiai responded that he too had been looking forward to meeting today.

Chef Ochiai said that two years ago he had been close to death. Ryuji said he had heard about that, and had heard that the chef had since recovered. Chef Ochiai went on, "Now's the time." It may sound presumptuous, he said, but the opportunities to teach the people he wants to teach have been dwindling. Ryuji asked, "Please, really, teach me," and the video ends.