Simple Shiso Garlic Butter Pasta with Yuzu Koshō

As the name suggests, Simple Shiso Garlic Butter Pasta is a quick and easy pasta recipe that uses a plenty of shiso (perilla) leaves. The addition of a distinct Japanese seasoning, yuzu koshō, gives a touch of chilli flavour to the pasta. It’s almost like a Japanese version of pasta peperoncino, except that it has a great scent of shiso.

As I mentioned in my post Chicken Patties Bento, I grow shiso and I have so many shiso leaves. I don’t want to waste them of course, so I came up with a recipe that consumes quite a few of shiso leaves.

Shiso Garlic Butter Pasta is such a plain pasta – shiso’s refreshing aroma would be sufficient without adding anything else. But I thought of the simple Italian pasta, peperoncino pasta. The key ingredient is red chilli, and I decided to give the same effect to my pasta by adding Japanese seasoning, yuzu koshō.

About Yuzu Koshō (柚子胡椒)

Firstly, I must say that the name of this seasoning is misleading. The word ‘yuzu‘ (柚子) is the name of a small, fragrant citrus fruit. The word ‘koshō’ (胡椒) means pepper in Japanese, but there is no pepper in it. Yuzu koshō is a mixture of yuzu rind, green chilli, and salt.

Green yuzu koshō.

Yuzu koshō originated in the northern part of Kyushu and is widely used in Kyushu. In the standard Japanese language, chilli is ‘tōgarashi’ (唐辛子), but in Nagasaki dialect (Nagasaki is a prefecture in the northern part of Kyushū), chilli is called ‘koshō’ (胡椒). Instead of calling this seasoning, ‘yuzu tōgarashi’, it became ‘yuzu koshō’.

Green chilli is usually used to make yuzu koshō, giving a green colour to it (as seen in the above photo). But in some regions in Kyushu, red chilli is used to make reddish yuzu koshō.

Red yuzu koshō.

The colour of yuzu rind can also vary from young green fruit to ripe yellow fruit. Yuzu koshō made with green yuzu and green chilli is the greenest and the combination of yellow yuzu and red chilli makes red yuzu koshō.

From left: Yellow yuzu, red & green chilli, green yuzu.

The green yuzu koshō has stronger spiciness and the red yuzu koshō has stronger scent.

Local people in Kyushu use yuzu koshō as a condiment for hotpot, miso soup, and sashimi. But as you can see in my recipe today, the use of yuzu koshō extends to not only the traditional Japanese dishes but also the Western-style dishes.

You can buy yuzu koshō at Japanese grocery stores and some Asian grocery stores. You can also order it from various online stores.

What’s in My Simple Shiso Garlic Butter Pasta with Yuzu Kosho

The flavour of today’s pasta dish is delicate. So, I used No. 3 spaghetti, which is thinner than the standard spaghetti. This is because flavour clings more easily to the thinner pasta. The thinner pasta also gives you a better balance with a plain flavour of the sauce.

• No. 3 dried spaghetti
• Shiso (perilla) leaves, chopped into thin short strips
• Garlic finely chopped
• Olive oil
• Butter
• Yuzu koshō (green)
• Salt.

This is a green dish with fresh perilla leaves, so I used green yuzu koshō. But if you only have red yuzu koshō, it’s quite alright to use it in place of green yuzu koshō.

How to make Simple Shiso Garlic Butter Pasta with Yuzu Koshō

1. Cook pasta for the duration indicated in the packet, less 30 seconds.
2. Reserve ¼ cup pasta water, then drain the pasta.
3. While cooking pasta, heat oil with garlic in a frying pan over medium heat.
4. Add yuzu koshō, salt, and butter to the pan and mix until the butter melts.
5. Put the drained pasta and pasta water into the pan and mix.
6. Add perilla, turn the heat off, and mix quickly ensuring that the perilla coats the pasta evenly.

My No. 3 pasta needed only 5 minutes to cook, but the garlic butter sauce for the pasta took even less time. So I had to remove the frying pan from the heat until the pasta was ready, then reheat the sauce in the pan before adding the boiled pasta to it (see the video).

To enjoy the scent of shiso, it is best to eat the pasta immediately.

More About Shiso

I talked about shiso extensively in my post Chicken Patties Wrapped in Perilla, but I want to add a bit more about it today.

The shiso plant in my garden produced more than enough shiso leaves this summer. It grew so much that I had to give a lot of cuttings to the chef-owner of a couple of restaurants.

When my shiso plants finished for the season last autumn, they dropped so many seeds and sprouted everywhere in early spring.  This was quite amazing because my house was under renovation most of last year and the garden bed where the shiso used to grow was filled with debris at some stage, then walked over before the shiso seeds germinated.

You can tell from the above that shiso is quite easy to grow if it is planted in the right place. Shiso likes sunny and well-ventilated places but avoid exposing to direct sun for a long period of time. It doesn’t like dry soil, so you may need to water it every day during summer.

The distinct shiso fragrance comes from the back of the leaf, which has aromatic compounds. If you rub the back of the leaf too much, it loses the beautiful shiso fragrance. Therefore, it is recommended to roll the leaves the right side out when cutting the leaves so that you don’t rub the back of the leaves. You can see in the video how I roll the shiso leaves.

Shiso is a seasonal vegetable and you can buy shiso leaves in some Japanese grocery stores in late spring through to autumn. You might also find a packet of shiso seeds to sow in spring or a pot of small shiso plant (summer time).

Make sure that the shiso you are getting is Japanese shiso, which can be quite different from the shiso leaves from other Asian grocery stores. For example, Korean shiso is larger with tougher texture, and the flavour is quite different from the Japanese shiso.

Shiso Garlic Butter Pasta with Yuzu Koshō is a simple dish with minimal seasonings, so you can fully enjoy the flavour of shiso. It can be served as a main as well as a side dish.

Yumiko

Watch How To Make It

5 from 2 votes

Print

Simple Shiso Garlic Butter Pasta with Yuzu Koshō

Prep Time

6 mins

Cook Time

6 mins

Total Time

12 mins

 

As the name suggests, Simple Shiso Garlic Butter Pasta is a quick and easy pasta recipe that uses a plenty of shiso (perilla) leaves. The addition of a distinct Japanese seasoning, yuzu koshō, gives a touch of chilli flavour to the pasta.

See the video.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Main

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: Easy pasta, japanese pasta, Perilla recipes, shiso pasta, shiso recipe

Serves: 2

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 160g/5.6oz dried spaghetti No. 3 (note 1)
• 20g/0.7oz shiso (perilla) leaves (about 20-25 leaves)
• 1 tbsp garlic finely chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 20g/0.7oz butter
• ½ tsp yuzu koshō (green, note 2)
• ¼ tsp salt

Instructions

1. Trim the stem of shiso leaves. Pile the shiso leaves on top of each other, facing the back side up.

2. Starting from the end close to you, roll the pile together loosely, away from you.

3. Slice the rolled shiso leaves into about 2mm/3⁄32" wide strips. Line up the sliced coiled strips, then cut them into short strips.

4. Cook spaghetti as per the instructions on the package. Cooking time should be 30 seconds less than the instructed time (note 3). Reserve ¼ cup of pasta water before draining the pasta.

5. While pasta is cooking (note 4), heat olive oil and garlic in a frying pan over medium heat.

6. When the garlic pieces start browning slightly around the edges (about 1 minute), add yuzu koshō, salt, and butter to the pan and mix.

7. When the garlic butter sauce starts bubbling gently and the pasta is just cooked, go to step 10.

8. If the pasta is still cooking when the sauce is ready, turn the heat off the frying pan and wait for the pasta to be ready.
9. When the pasta is ready, reheat the sauce in the frying pan over medium heat until the sauce starts bubbling.

10. Add the drained pasta to the frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of pasta water. Mix for about 20 seconds.

11. Turn the heat off and add perilla to the pasta. Mix quickly ensuring that the perilla pieces wilt and coat pasta evenly.
12. Serve immediately (note 5).

Recipe Notes

1. Because the shiso flavour is delicate, I used thinner spaghetti (No. 3) instead of standard No. 5. But you can use standard spaghetti.

2. You can buy yuzu koshō at Japanese grocery stores and some Asian grocery stores. You can even buy it online.

There is green yuzu koshō and red yuzu koshō. For today’s dish, the green one is better suited, but if you only have red yuzu koshō, you can substitute it. Please read the post for more details about yuzu koshō.

3. My No. 3 pasta required 5 minutes to cook. So I cooked for only 4½ minutes.

4. It takes less than 2 minutes to make the garlic butter sauce. If you start step2 about 2 minutes before the pasta is ready, you can add the pasta when the sauce is just done.

But if you can’t be bothered to synchronise the two activities, you can start making your garlic butter sauce as soon as the pasta is in the boiling water. Make the sauce and rest it until the pasta is ready, then reheat the sauce before adding the pasta to it.

5. I recommend eating the pasta immediately so that you can best enjoy the scent and flavour of the shiso.

6. Nutrition per serving.

serving:113g calories:439kcal fat:16g (21%) saturated fat:6.3g (32%) trans fat:0.3g polyunsaturated fat:1.5g monounsaturated fat:7.2g cholesterol:21mg (7%) sodium:406mg (18%) carbohydrates:62g (23%) dietary fibre:3.4g (12%) sugar:2.2g protein:11g vitamin D:0mcg (0%) calcium:48mg (4%) iron:4.0mg (22%) potassium: 246mg (5%)