Have you ever tried the umami-rich combination of butter and soy sauce? One delicious way to enjoy this pairing is in a shrimp and shiitake soy sauce butter pasta.
While still in high school, I tried it at a Japanese restaurant for the first time in New Jersey. In lieu of the raw fish options, I went with the “soy sauce butter spaghetti,” about which I had zero expectations, and it totally blew my mind.
Of course, I didn’t have a food blog back then, and my mind rarely wandered far from history tests and yearbook deadlines, but now is the time to broadcast this to the world.
Let’s see, we’ve got some soy sauce and butter. They’re each fantastic in their own right. To put it simply, they make an incredible pair. The soy sauce butter tastes even better when combined with the briny shrimp and earthy shiitake mushrooms.
You could easily whip this up for dinner tonight…
Everything you need can be found in your local grocery store. There really is no reason not to! If shiitake mushrooms are unavailable, any other type of mushroom will do.
Our ratatouille pasta and roasted choy sum pesto pasta are two of our most popular vegetarian pasta dishes.
Ingredients:
- 225g of peeled, deveined shrimp (thoroughly pat dry)
- 8 oz. of thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms
- 10 oz. of dried pasta of your choice
- 2 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 minced shallots
- 1/4 cup of chopped parsley
- 1/3 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/3 cup of white wine
- 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons of butter
- olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions:
- Soak your pasta in water that has been brought to a boil. Two tablespoons of olive oil should be heated in a large skillet over high heat until the oil is nearly smoking. It’s essential to cook the shrimp until they’re opaque in the middle and crisp outside. Take out the heat and put it to one side.
- Add the garlic and shallots and lower the heat to medium. About 2 minutes of sautéing should be enough to produce a caramelized coating. Sliced mushrooms should be added and caramelized for about 7 minutes. Extra olive oil may be needed if the pan appears dry.
- Prepare pasta as directed, then drain it, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Cook for two more minutes after deglazing with white wine to ensure that most of the liquid has evaporated from the mushrooms.
- Toss the cooked pasta with the soy sauce and melted butter in a pan. Give everything one last toss after adding the shrimp, parsley, and Parmesan. If it seems too thick, add some of the pasta water you set aside.
- When ready to serve, season with salt and pepper to taste (keeping in mind that soy sauce is already quite salty).