Ryuji's One-Pan "Nori Natto Cream Pasta": Natto and Nori Simmered in Soy Milk

It started with a suggestion from his staff. Pasta with nori shows up often on TikTok, so they wondered whether adding natto might make it even better. Ryuji said he had made nori pasta many times before but had never combined it with natto. A staff member who tried a test batch said it was "really delicious."

The ingredients for two servings are 200g of 1.5mm pasta, 2 large sheets of toasted nori, butter, unsweetened soy milk, small-bean Okame natto, and seasonings. The nori came in a 12-sheet pack at about 3g per sheet, so two sheets come to roughly 6g. He uses unseasoned nori, adding that seasoned nori can work if you cut back on the salt. Since no knife is needed at all, Ryuji described it as "close to a void recipe."

According to Ryuji, he now makes all his one-pan pastas in a 24cm frying pan. A recipe from a year ago called for 350cc of water per serving, but a key point of this episode is that you should not simply double the water when making two servings.

The reason is the rate of evaporation. One-pan pasta is finished by cooking off the liquid, and if the pan's diameter stays the same, the water evaporates at the same speed. Double the water and it won't all cook off, leaving the result watery. So when going from one serving to two, he uses about 1.6 times the water, which this time came to 550–560cc. He said one-pan cooking generally works for up to two servings, with three being a stretch. For three servings, he suggested multiplying the 1.6x amount by 1.6 again as a rough guide, though he admitted "this part is by feel." He also explained that he often received requests for two-serving recipes but had never actually made one, so he decided to try it this time.

A staff member asked whether aosa could be used instead of nori. Ryuji replied that either aosa or aonori would work if you use about the same weight. However, since you'd need quite a lot, he thinks sheet nori is easier.

He also explained that aosa and aonori are different things. Aonori is more expensive, and the fineness of the flakes and the flavor differ as well. In Ryuji's view, many people, even those who cook, can't tell the two apart.

Going off on a tangent from the aosa discussion, Ryuji brought up the backlash against his recently released video, "Roast Beef Beyond Supreme." He said it was criticized because the center was close to raw.

As Ryuji explained it, proper roast beef is cooked through so that it is pink inside, and what they ate was actually closer to beef tataki, somewhere between tataki and roast beef. Because bacteria rarely get inside a solid block of beef, he believes there is no safety issue as long as the surface is well seared, and said the criticism came from people who lacked that knowledge. At the same time, he said he "really loves" that this kind of debate happens at all.

What concerns Ryuji is that if the voices saying "it's raw inside, so you shouldn't eat it" grow louder, food regulation will follow. If that happens, he argued, dishes like yukhoe will never be eaten again. Raw eggs may carry salmonella, and raw oysters have caused norovirus outbreaks many times. All food carries risk, and while cooking it is certainly safer, people still want to enjoy the deliciousness of raw food. If people demand bans on the grounds of risk, then sashimi and raw oysters would be off the table too, and we'd end up in a world where eggs must always be cooked—that is the thrust of Ryuji's argument. He urged viewers to recognize that "it's because we can eat the risk that we get to eat delicious things." He added, though, that debating whether something is safe is itself good for food culture, because it spreads knowledge.

The cooking process is as follows.

1. Bring 560cc of water to a boil in the frying pan, add 200g of pasta, and submerge it in the water.
2. Add 2 2/3 teaspoons of Hondashi and 2 pinches of salt.
3. Simmer over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes (he used pasta with a labeled cooking time of 6 minutes).
4. Partway through, tear the nori into the pan and simmer it along with the pasta.
5. Once the liquid has reduced, add 240cc of soy milk and 20g of butter, and season with soy sauce.
6. While the pasta still has a little firmness, add the natto mixed with its sauce and mustard to finish.

As for the salt, Ryuji said he only adds it because he's a drinker, and those who prefer a lighter flavor can leave it out. He noted that the key is not to add the soy milk at the start, but to add it after the liquid has reduced to some extent.

Milk can be used instead of soy milk, but Ryuji prefers soy milk because it thickens better. On the subject of thickening, he explained why making it in one pan matters. Béchamel and cream sauces are usually thickened with flour. With one-pan cooking, the wheat that dissolves from the pasta stays in the cooking liquid, which then serves directly as the base for the cream sauce. He used 1.5mm noodles but said 1.6mm would be fine too.

When simmered with the pasta, the nori breaks down back into flakes, and its aroma transfers to the pasta. Shredded nori works too, but Ryuji said he prefers sheet nori. He adds soy sauce because nori and soy sauce pair well, citing the fact that nori tsukudani is also made with soy sauce. The flavor is a Japanese-style cream, which a staff member said "seems like something you'd find at Goemon."

He also touched on the idea that adding natto to something hot kills its enzymes. Ryuji's position is that it's not worth worrying about, since those enzymes are said not to do much in the first place, and some say they're dead by the time they reach the gut anyway.

At the tasting, both Ryuji and his staff kept repeating "100% delicious" and "way too good." The nori, which some thought might be too much at two sheets, turned out to be just the right amount and was dispersed throughout. A staff member said the pairing of butter and nori and the creaminess of the soy milk worked well together, going so far as to say "Goemon should put this on the menu right now." Ryuji also called it "a flavor like no other." Another impression was that, despite being a cream pasta, it wasn't heavy and was refreshing to eat.

For flavor variations, they tried yuzu kosho and wasabi, concluding that both work well. Ryuji recalled having made a nori cream wasabi pasta before. He said having two flavor-variation options is great and recommended using whichever one you have at home. There was also talk that it should taste good with other types of natto, and a comment that even people who aren't too fond of natto could probably eat it.

Ryuji said that since he'd been making only labor-intensive dishes lately, this one turned out to be a dish that truly feels like "a classic Buzz Recipe." He also expressed his belief that one-pan pastas rooted in everyday life are absolutely essential. He has made many natto pastas over the years, but said this one should taste like something you've rarely had before, and he closed the video by encouraging viewers to try making it, along with the wasabi and yuzu kosho variations.