This strangely comforting pasta dish has sliced hotdogs and a sweet-sour sauce made with tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, sugar and milk.
Cook’s notes
A yoshoku, or Western-style dish, Naporitan was invented in 1945 by Shigetada Irie, head chef of Hotel New Grand in Yokohama, to please Gen. Douglas MacArthur who occupied the hotel as his headquarters and, later, as residence for American military officers.
The original Naporitan had canned tomato puree for its sauce and bacon for the meat. As it evolved over the years and adapted for Japanese home cooking, ketchup and sliced hotdogs, both cheaper than tomato puree and bacon, became standard ingredients.
As you can imagine, there are so many versions of this simple dish. This recipe was inspired by a tutorial in an episode of Izakaya Bottakuri, a show on Netflix about two sisters who run a diner that they inherited from their parents.
Naporitan (Japanese ketchup spaghetti)
Ingredients
- 180 grams spaghetti (6.3 oz)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium yellow onion peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and chopped
- 1 large bell pepper julienned
- 300 grams hotdogs (10.5 oz) thinly sliced
Sauce
- ½ cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Dump the spaghetti in plenty of boiling water.
- While the pasta cooks, melt the butter in a pan.
- Saute the sliced onion, chopped garlic and julienned bell pepper until a bit softened.
- Add the sliced hotdogs and cook until heated through.
- Mix together all the ingredients for the sauce.
- Pour into the pan with the sausages. Stir and cook until boiling.
- Drain the spaghetti and dump into the sauce. Toss well.
- Serve your Naporitan sprinkled with grated Parmesan.
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