Isabel  introduced me to the concept of Japanese-style Italian food from at an unassuming restaurant called Shiso Tree in Markham’s J-Town. While the concept seemed strange to me at first, the flavours are some of my favourite and truth be told, we probably eat Asian-style pasta more often than Italian.

Udon is usually a lazy, Saturday afternoon lunch option for Isabel and I. It’s not my favourite variety of noodle, but it’s chewy, and bouncy and is good in a soup.  To switch things up, we decided to have it a different way, very much inspired by a dish we’d had at Guu SakaBar.

Carbonara in general is quite a simple dish, and the flavor modifications here don’t make it any more complicated. But the result is a creamy and delicious weekday night dinner option for two.

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Ingredients:

• 2 bricks of good quality frozen udon
• 2 strips of diced bacon
• 1 egg
• Dash of white pepper
• Dash of soy sauce
• Dash of hon dashi seasoning
• Freshly grated parmesan
• Sliced green onion
• Sliced nori (for garnish)

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. While coming to temperature, begin to fry the bacon.

2. In a large bowl whisk the egg, pepper, dashi seasoning, soy sauce and parmasean. This will form the sauce for the noodles.

3. At this point, the diced bacon should be crispy and delicious. Take it off the heat.

4. When the water comes to a boil, drop the noodles. They shouldn’t take long to cook. After a couple of minutes, strain them in a metal colander. Shake off as much excess water as you can.

4.  Add the cooked, strained noodles to the egg-sauce component. Stir vigorously. The residual heat from the noodles should cook the egg, but if you don’t stir fast enough, it will scramble and ruin the dish.

5. Add the sliced green onion, nori and serve.