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Experts from around the world share their thoughts on umami and original recipes where umami is brought to life.
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This innovative chef from Kyoto talks about his unusual but successful infusion of elements of the Kyoto culinary tradition – and umami – into Italian cuisine.
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Yasuhiro Sasajima
owner / chef of Il Ghiottone/
Japan |
In my restaurants, we learn from Kyoto cuisine by using kombu (kelp) and kombu dashi (kelp stock) in Italian cooking. For instance, if you put in some kombu when you are boiling pasta, you get delicious pasta in which the umami and the saltiness are brought out nicely. If you use kombu dashi when boiling vegetables, the umami in the stock can also draw out the flavor of the vegetables. Cheese, tomato and other ingredients that are part of traditional Italian cuisine, and are rich in umami, are also frequently used, but adding kombu dashi to these ingredients and creating new dishes such as Italian-style takenoko (bamboo-shoot) stew, the fusion of tomato and dashi (stock), and so on, I realise each time afresh the wonderful taste waiting to be discovered in vegetables, that I had previously failed to notice. Also, I feel again keenly what a great discovery the Japanese have made in umami, a discovery of which we can be proud.
When I am thinking of a new recipe, what is important is not to let the kombu flavor permeate everything, but unobtrusively to give to a cuisine with which Westerners are familiar the benefit of kombu’s umami. For instance, instead of making stock from kombu and katsuobushi (bonito flakes), we use with the cured ham that is a speciality of Italy, and which contains the same umami parts as katsuobushi. Even if the customer does not realise kombu umami is present, he or she will taste that there is something different and good about the flavor; in this way I hope to pass on the power of umami to the world.
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Yasuhiro Sasajima’s Profile
Born 1964 in Osaka. Owner and Chef of Il Ghiottone restaurant in Kyoto, where he specializes in unique from of Kyoto Italian cuisine. Such is restaurant 's success that in 2005 a sister branch was opened in Tokyo. He also make regular contributions to television programmers and publications in Japan. He participated in the Indentita Coroze conference in January 2007, and is gathering worldwide acclaim. |
 Chef Sasajima's
‘Clam and bamboo shoot bavettine flavored with kinome’
The essential trick to this recipe is the use of a sauce containing the three ingredients of succinic acid from clam, the inosinate of ham and the glutamate of kombu(kelp), all of which are rich in umami. Al dente pasta is well-matched with the crisp texture of the bamboo shoot.
Ingredients:
serves 2 |
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extra virgin olive oil |
2 tbsp (30cc) |
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garlic (peeled and buds trimmed, cut vertically in half) |
2 large segments |
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short neck clams (with sand removed) |
20 |
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bavettine (a long pasta, oval in cross-section) |
160g |
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bamboo shoot (in chicken bouillon with kombu and cured ham*) |
60g |
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kinome (young leaves of the sansho or Japanese prickly ash) |
as required |
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salt |
as required |
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Method:
| 1) |
The day before the meal is to be served, give the bamboo shoot a preliminary boiling with nuka (rice bran) and togarashi (red chilli pepper), then simmer with the ingredients marked with an asterisk* to the left for about 20 minutes to bring out the flavors. Switch off heat and leave overnight. |
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| 2) |
Prepare kombu dashi for boiling the pasta. Mix 10g-15g of kombu (about 10 cubic cm) with 1.8 litres of water. Leave overnight. |
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| 3) |
Pour olive oil in an unheated frying pan, and place chopped garlic in with cut-side down. Heat on medium flame. |
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| 4) |
When the olive oil heats up and the white rises to the surface, turn flame low. When the garlic colors slightly, remove from pan. |
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Cut the bamboo shoot prepared in 1) into sticks (first cut the whole length into sections, then cut these sections vertically into slices, then cut the slices, cut-side down, vertically into sticks; this is called ‘hyoshigiri’). (Stick shapes intertwine well with the pasta.) |
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| 6) |
Line the takenoko sticks up on the bottom of the frying pan like planks, and spread on top of these the clam in their shells. Sprinkle a little water (two teaspoons), cover with lid, and steam. When the shells open remove the clam in their shells and take out the flesh. (Don’t allow the flesh to grow cold.) |
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| 7) |
Boil the pasta a little on the hard side. (Take it out 30 seconds before the time suggested on package.) Allowing it to soak in the flavors of the sauce in the frying pan, heat on a medium flame. When sauce has mixed completely with pasta and excess juice has disappeared, turn off heat. Adjust flavor with the water used to boil the pasta. |
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| 8) |
Return the clam flesh to the frying pan, arrange the whole in a dish, top with kinome. |
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