A wafu (Japanese-style) pasta tossing hot spaghetti with salted pollock roe, butter and a little soy, so the tiny roe grains coat every strand in a creamy, savory sauce. Milder and less spicy than its mentaiko sibling, it is finished with shredded nori and shiso for a clean, oceanic lift.
Tarako spaghetti belongs to Japan's wafu (Japanese-style) pasta tradition, dressing spaghetti with salted cod roe, butter and nori. Created at the Tokyo restaurant Kabe no Ana, founded 1953 in Nishi-Shinbashi and relocated to Shibuya in 1963 — where its founder Takayasu Narimatsu devised the dish (and the now-standard nori topping) as an affordable tarako stand-in for an expensive caviar spaghetti. It later spawned a spicier cousin made with mentaiko.
Each strand is slick with butter and studded with tiny roe grains that pop softly and release a gentle, salty-savory burst of the sea. The nori and shiso add a fresh, herbal-marine snap that keeps it light rather than heavy.
Tossing the roe off the heat keeps the proteins from seizing into hard clumps, so it stays creamy and emulsified around the noodles. Butter and a little starchy pasta water bind the sauce, while raw tarako preserves its delicate briny pop.
Variations
mentaiko spaghetti (spicy version), with shimeji mushrooms, cream-enriched, with squid or shrimp
On the Palate
Where Tarako Spaghetti sits in the Japanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 2How it's made
8 steps · 10 min
- 19 min
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the spaghetti until al dente.
Watch outPull the spaghetti at al dente with a slight bite left — the residual heat keeps softening it once it hits the roe.
- 21 min
Slit the tarako sacs and scrape the roe into a bowl.
- 31 min
Add softened butter and a little soy sauce to the roe and mix into a paste.
- 41 min
Reserve a splash of pasta water before draining the spaghetti.
- 51 min
Working off the heat, add the hot drained spaghetti to the roe paste.
- 61 min
Toss quickly, loosening with pasta water, so the roe coats without cooking solid.
Watch outToss off the heat, loosening with pasta water — the moment the pan's too hot the roe seizes into hard grains instead of a creamy coat.
- 71 min
Plate the spaghetti in a tangle.
- 81 min
Top with shredded nori and thin ribbons of shiso leaf.
