Japanese-style Wafu pasta with mushrooms

There is a whole category of Japanese dishes called wafu pasta.  Wafu means “Japanese style” in Japanese.  (Not to be confused with wagyu which means Japanese beef!). These pasta dishes aren’t made with the traditional Japanese noodles like udon or soba.  They are made with the spaghetti pasta that is synonymous with Italian food.  If you love pasta, these Japanese-style pasta recipes will give you a new twist to your favorite dishes!  And here is the recipe for one of the more common, Japanese-style pasta with mushrooms.

Japanese-style pasta varieties

There is no one single way to make the Japanese-style wafu pasta. The only common thing within this category is they are all made with traditionally Japanese ingredients.  The main flavors of the wafu pasta are typically soy sauce, ume (plum) paste, or cod roe (regular or spicy).   Then other Japanese ingredients such as the shiitake mushrooms, natto (fermented soy beans), shiso (green leafy herb), nori (seaweed) just to name a few, are further added to it.

Instant Japanese-style Pasta

Japanese-style, wafu pasta is such a staple in homecooked Japanese meals that there are a huge variety of wafu pasta instant mixes available, courtesy of the Land of Instant Ramens!  When you don’t feel like making lunch or dinner from scratch, you can totally cheat and buy one of these “instant” pasta mixes. And as Japan perfected their instant noodle technology over the years, pasta dishes made with these mixes are seriously freakin’ delicious!  You just make the pasta, put the dry ingredients and/or sauce provided in these packets and voila, you got yourself a meal!

Japanese-style Pasta Sauce Packets

Japanese mushroom varieties

You probably have heard of shiitake mushrooms which is used in many Japanese dishes.  But there are other types of mushrooms that are frequently used in Japanese cooking that will be great in this recipe: 

• Shiitake
• Enoki – long-stemmed clusters of white mushrooms
• Shimeji – clusters of smaller, stockier mushrooms with light brown caps
• Eringi – Also known as king oyster mushrooms

On the day I went shopping for these mushrooms, I could not find any that looked fresh to me.  So, I settled for Portabella mushrooms instead and I’m happy how it turned out!  You can also use any other meatier mushrooms or combinations of mushrooms such as cremini, morel, oyster and porcini mushrooms.

Meat substitution or go vegetarian!

I added bacon to the recipe to appease the carnivores in our household. But instead of bacon, you can use chicken or thinly sliced pork.  Or add thinly sliced onions or more mushrooms to make a completely vegetarian version of this dish.

Japanese-style pasta with mushrooms recipe

Pin it for later!