Spaghetti Napolitan is everything that there is to love about fusion food, heavenly Japanese pasta made with ketchup, smoked sausage & bacon!
This delicious and unusual pasta recipe will be loved by young and old, it is simple, delicious and will cook in well under 30 minutes.
Japanese Pasta Napolitan (Naporitan)
There are some people who reject any kind of “play” with food out of hand. I am not that person, and this delicious recipe is very much the reason why.
I love playing with ingredients from other cultures in dishes where they do not naturally “belong”, just as I do in my miso butter pasta recipe.
Spaghetti Napolitan is a Japanese pasta dish with a sauce that features tomato ketchup, smoked sausage and bacon.
I first came across this dish whilst developing my hotdog pasta recipe, a dish that features a sauce that has “influences” of ketchup, alongside mustard, and crispy onions.
It gets its name from dishes that hail from Napoli, like my Pasta Napolitana recipe. But my take on this dish is a boatload of fun and tastes like everything childhood me would love… I’m now 50 and it brings me just as much joy!
The ketchup sauce gets a little spice from Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce and is seasoned with soy sauce.
It sounds crazy, but it is awesome and can be cooked and prepared in under 30 minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What sausages do you use?
I’ve used some Polish kielbasa in this recipe, the same sausage that I use in my lazanki recipe.
You could use any smoked sausage you like, it’s also fairly common to make this with hotdog sausages.
Can I use a different type of pasta?
Of course, there are many people that insist on certain types of pasta with certain sauces. This sauce throws all of those “classic” rules out of the window, so why not the type of pasta too?
I think that it is best served with long types of pasta like spaghetti, linguine or pappardelle. But feel free to throw whatever type you have in the cupboard alongside this sauce.
Do I have to add the Tabasco sauce?
No, you can omit the spice if you want to, or indeed you can increase it. I am a spice fiend, hence it’s appearance alongside the Worcestershire sauce.
Can I make this in advance?
I would not reheat this dish, the pasta will tend towards becoming overcooked. Fortunately, this is a quick recipe that will come together in 20-25 minutes, making it an ideal quick midweek dinner.
Serving Suggestions
Spaghetti Napolitan is a simple pasta recipe, but it is a hearty one too. The bacon, sausage, onions and peppers make this a dish that does not necessarily need a side dish.
However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t serve it on its own!
In these pictures, I have served it with some garlic baguette from the freezer.
It’s a paste recipe defined by store cupboard ingredients or cold ingredients that will sit in the fridge for a long old time. As a result, I’d keep my sides coming from the same place.
If I were to spend a little extra time, I’d serve this with some soft potato focaccia.
Equipment Used
I only name-check brands of equipment if I think that they make a material difference to a recipe. But if you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments section below the recipe.
- Hob/Stovetop.
- 20cm or 8″ saucepan.
- 30cm or 12″ frying pan.
- Serving and serving spoons and kitchen tongs.
- Colander or sieve.
- Chopping board.
- Kitchen knife.
- A combination of weighing scales, measuring cups and spoons.
Japanese Spaghetti Napolitan (Naporitan) Recipe
I love dishes that take you by surprise and spaghetti Napolitan is a glorious Japanese pasta recipe that dates back to post-war Yokohama and combines smoked sausage, bacon and green peppers in a sauce made from tomato ketchup. It's a dish that will make the child in you squeal with delight and might make the grown-up in you look on with distain, ignore the grown-up, this tastes fantastic!
Ingredients
- 200g (7oz) Spaghetti
- 150g (5oz) Smoked Sausage
- 100g (4oz) Bacon Lardons
- 1 Small (100g) Onion
- 1 Small Green Pepper
- 75ml (⅓ Cup) Tomato Ketchup
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 Tsp Soy Sauce
- ¼ Tsp Tabasco Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Cooking Oil
- Salt to Taste and to Boil the Pasta
- ¼ Tsp Black Pepper
- 15g (1 Tbsp) Butter
- Spring Onions for Garnish
Instructions
- Begin by bringing a 20cm or 8" saucepan of well salted water to boil, I use 1½ teaspoons in a pan this size.
- Slice the smoked sausage into 3-4mm (⅛") rounds.
- Cut the onion in half, peel it and then cut it into 3-4mm thick (⅛") thick half moon shapes.
- Remove the seeds and stem form the green pepper and cut it into 3-4mm (⅛") strips.
- Mix the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, tabasco and black pepper in a small bowl.
- Heat a 30cm or 12" frying pan over a medium high heat, and when it is hot add the oil, bacon lardons, smoked sausage, and onion then fry for 3-4 minutes tossing and stirring regularly.
- Once the sausage mix has been cooking for 3-4 minutes, add the spaghetti to the boiling water and cook until al dente. As soon as you add the pasta to the water, toss the green pepper into the sausage mix and fry for 2 minutes.
- Reduce the heat under the sausage mix to medium, push the ingredients to the side of the frying pan and add the sauce you mixed earlier and allow it to thicken for a minute or two, then stir all of the ingredients together, reduce the heat to low and cover with a lid and keep warm until the pasta is cooked. Now is a good time to have a taste and add salt if required
- Now is a good time to slice the spring onions for the garnish.
- Drain the pasta reserving a little of the cooking water, add the pasta to the sauce along with the butter, and mix to combine with just enough pasta cooking water to form a nice coating.
- Serve sprinkled with the spring onions.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 811Total Fat: 36gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 20gCholesterol: 62mgSodium: 1874mgCarbohydrates: 99gFiber: 5gSugar: 17gProtein: 24g
Calorific details are provided by a third-party application and are to be used as indicative figures only.