Fusing Spaghetti Natto Style

I've been doing some wacky things with spaghetti recently. Spaghetti in my kitchen is no longer Italian or even American. It's ...borderless. Fusion to the max.

On the coat tails of the successful curry spaghetti (which is now a standard dish in my dinner rotation), I've been exploring different kinds of sauces. My most recent victory was the Natto Spaghetti.


Oh my goodness, this was so amazing. I am salivating looking at this picture right now.

I've already confessed my love for natto, but never in a million years did I expect it to match spaghetti so much. The slimy coating on the spaghetti only highlighted its delicious smooth texture. Each noodle was slick and seductively oozing with natto essence. Dashi-steamed/boiled edamame, fried tofu, and pea sprouts added more substance and refreshing change in mouth-feel.

This was so good and so unbelievably simple, I have to do a recipe-type description.

Goods:
1. Bring just a little bit of bonito broth to boil (the instant stuff is fine, or substitute with broth of your choice), seasoned relatively strongly with soy sauce.
2. Add chopped fried tofu and edamame to steam/cook ~5 min (depending on how soft you like your edamame), amking sure 95% of the liquid is gone.
3. Add pea sprouts just before the spaghetti is done.

Spaghetti:
Boil spaghetti for it to finish just as the edamame is soft. Strain just before adding to stirred natto.

Natto:
Stir, stir, stir until your arm is about to fall off in a big bowl.

Assembly:
1. Add cooked spaghetti to stirred natto, stir to coat spaghetti.
2. Add all of the solids from the Goods section and tiny bit of remaining sauce to the bowl with natto and spaghetti.
3. Serve and enjoy!

The longest time-sink is the time it takes for the water to boil for the spaghetti. After that, this meal is ready in 15 min or less. And goodness, it packed all the right flavors and all the right textures. Two thumbs up for natto!