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Home ► Recipes ► Japanese (Modern)

Uni Pasta (Japanese Sea Urchin Spaghetti)

Updated: 09.01.24 | Marc Matsumoto | 4 Comments

4.50 from 4 votes
Uni pasta is a creamy Japanese pasta dish that melds the sweet, briny flavor of sea urchin roe with rich cream to make for a luxurious restaurant-style dish that's easy enough to do at home.
Recipe Video
With spaghetti tossed with a creamy umami-packed uni sauce, this easy Japanese-style pasta highlights the briny flavor of this treasure from the sea.

Uni Pasta (ウニパスタ)

Uni Pasta (ウニパスタ) is a Japanese-style pasta dish made with spaghetti enrobed in a creamy uni sauce. In Japan, it's a luxurious pasta that you'd expect to find on the menu at expensive restaurants, but it's not that difficult to prepare.

In this Uni Pasta recipe, I'm going to show you the fundamental techniques you need to know to prepare this sea urchin cream sauce and the same technique can be adapted to make other similar Japanese pasta recipes like Creamy Mentaiko Spaghetti and Nori Cream Pasta.

Jump to:
  • Uni Pasta (ウニパスタ)
  • Why This Recipe Works
  • What is Uni?
  • Ingredients
  • How to Make Uni Pasta
  • 📖 Recipe
  • FAQ
  • Comments

Why This Recipe Works

  • Mashing the uni rather than pureeing retains some of its texture.
  • Finishing the spaghetti in a pan like risotto by stirring it with oil and water releases starch from the noodles, allowing the two liquids to form a creamy emulsion. This creates the base for the uni cream sauce.
  • Adding the uni cream mixture to the pasta at the very end ensures the sauce is silky smooth and does not break.

What is Uni?

Uni (うに, ウニ, or 海胆) is the Japanese word for sea urchin. It's also the name of the edible orange or yellow roe or "coral" inside the sea urchin's shell. Although historically, it's been eaten by cultures worldwide, Japan is by far the largest consumer of this spiny echinoderm.

Climate change has contributed to a boom in sea urchin populations around the world, and they've decimated kelp forests in those areas. Urchins eat the base of kelp plants, detaching them from the sea floor. Sea otters and other predators used to keep the population in check, but their numbers have been decimated by hunting. Since marine forests can sequester up to 20 times the amount of carbon per acre than their land-based equivalent, this is bad. That's why this is one delicacy from the sea you don't have to feel too guilty about eating.

Tangle of Uni spaghetti with a creamy sea urchin sauce, garnished with fresh uni and green shiso.

Ingredients

  • Uni -This Japanese seafood pasta gets its flavor and color from uni or sea urchin roe. It's usually sold on small wooden pallets at Japanese grocery stores, but you may also find it packed in tubs of salt water, or you may find them still in their spiny shells. Shucked uni is often treated with alum to help it retain its shape, but this can make it taste bitter. That's why I recommend looking for untreated uni or shuck them yourself. I used Chilean uni for the sauce and uni from Hokkaido for the topping. If you're in the US, Santa Barbara uni will work fine. If you end up with more than you need or this dish, try my Sea Urchin Ceviche; it's a cool refreshing way to enjoy uni.
  • Cream - Uni is quite rich on its own, and heavy cream can be cloying, so I recommend using a cream with a relatively low butterfat content. Light cream (~20% fat) or half and half (12% fat) are good options. If you can't find light cream, you can add a splash of milk to heavy cream to lighten it up.
  • Olive oil - I recommend using extra-virgin olive oil. A mild one made from ripe olives with a round buttery flavor works best. You want to avoid spicy or green-tasting olive oils, which can make the uni taste bitter.
  • Garlic - Since there are no herbs or spices in this sea urchin dish, garlic joins the uni as the predominant flavor in the sauce. 
  • Anchovy - Anchovies get a bad rap for being fishy and salty, but they act as a seasoning while boosting umami when used in small quantities. I prefer anchovies packed in jars with oil rather than cans. I also try to look for anchovies that are more pink or beige in color rather than gray or dark brown.
  • Sake - Sake is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting rice. The fermentation process breaks down protein in the rice into its constituent amino acids, and these amino acids are what create the taste of umami. If you want to learn more about this, check out my article on the best sake for cooking and my series of videos about sake. 
  • Soy Sauce - While it may be surprising ingredient to add to pasta, soy sauce is used in many Japanese pasta dishes like Butter Shoyu Pasta to add a satisfying amount of umami to the sauce.
  • Pasta - In Japan, Spaghetti Napolitan was one of the first pasta dishes introduced to the country and these lanky noodles are also used to make uni pasta. That being said, there's no reason why you couldn't use another long noodle like linguine or bucatini. I prefer thicker spaghetti (1.9mm or thicker) or spaghetti for dishes with a rich, creamy sauce like this one.
  • Shiso - Green shiso is a Japanese varietal of perilla that's part of the mint family. It has broad saw-toothed leaves and a bright fragrance that's hard to compare to other herbs. If you can't find shiso near you, you can replace it with other herbs such as tarragon, parsley, chives, or scallions.

How to Make Uni Pasta

To make the uni cream, mash ¾ of the uni with a fork or a whisk, and then stir in the cream. You can also do this by pulsing an immersion blender or food processor.

Bring a pot of water water to a boil and add a generous amount of salt (1 teaspoon of salt per 10 US cups of water). Boil your spaghetti for two minutes less than the package directions (we finish cooking it in the sauce). For my spaghetti, the boiling time was eleven minutes, so I set the timer for nine minutes.

When the timer is down to three minutes, add the olive oil, garlic, and anchovies to a skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the mixture until the garlic is fragrant and cooked through, but don't let it brown.

Turn down the heat and carefully add the soy sauce. When the soy sauce has mostly evaporated, add the sake. There are two reasons for turning down the heat. The first is that adding a liquid to hot oil will spatter; the second is that the sudden release of alcohol vapors can cause it to ignite. Turn the heat up to bring the mixture to a boil and cook it until it no longer smells like alcohol.

Transfer the spaghetti directly to the frying pan with tongs when the timer goes off. You also want to add a ladle of the boiling liquid to the pan. Continue cooking the spaghetti with the garlic and oil while stirring constantly. Once there is very little liquid left, add another ladleful of pasta water to the pan and repeat until it is cooked to your liking. This should take another 2-3 minutes.

To finish the dish, add the uni cream and toss until the spaghetti is evenly coated and the sauce has warmed up. If the spaghetti starts to stick together or the sauce seems too thick, just add more boiling liquid to thin it out. Keep in mind that the spaghetti will continue to absorb the sauce as you plate it, so you want it to be fairly juicy. Be sure to taste your sauce for salt. Uni varies in salinity, so I've reduced the amount of other salty elements, but you may need to season with salt if your uni is on the mild side.

Creamy, briny and packed with umami, this Uni pasta recipe is a popular Japanese pasta dish that comes together in a matter of minutes.

Twirl the noodles in a bowl with tongs to plate it and garnish the creamy uni pasta with the reserved fresh sea urchin and green shiso.

📖 Recipe

Creamy uni pasta with spaghetti, garnished with fresh uni and green shiso.

Uni Pasta

By: Marc Matsumoto
4.50 from 4 votes
Print Pin
Prep Time 5 minutes mins
Cook Time 12 minutes mins
Total Time 17 minutes mins
Yield 2 servings
YouTube video

Equipment

12-inch Non-stick Frying Pan
1 12-inch Non-stick Frying Pan
1 Heavy Bottomed Pot
Medium Glass Bowl
1 Medium Glass Bowl

Units

Ingredients 

  • 150 grams uni (set ¼ aside for garnish)
  • ⅓ cup light cream (12-24% fat)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 7 grams garlic (1 large clove, finely minced)
  • 5 grams anchovy filets (2 filets finely minced)
  • ¼ cup sake
  • 1 teaspoon soy sauce
  • 200 grams spaghetti
  • 5 leaves green shiso (thinly sliced for garnish)

Instructions

  • Set aside ¼ of the 150 grams uni and then put the rest in a bowl and mash it with a whisk; it doesn't need to be smooth. Then you want to gently whisk in the cream.
    Mash the sea urchin and stir in the cream.
  • Bring 10 cups of water to a boil and add 1 teaspoon of salt.
    Salting boiling water for pasta.
  • Add the 200 grams spaghetti and boil for 2 minutes less than the time specified on the package instructions. For example, my spaghetti takes 11 minutes to cook, so I'm going to set the timer for 9 minutes.
  • About 3 minutes before the spaghetti is done, place a skillet over medium-high heat and add the 2 tablespoons olive oil, 7 grams garlic, and 5 grams anchovy filets. Sauté until the garlic is fragrant but hasn't started to brown yet.
    Sauteeing garlic and anchovies in olive oil.
  • Turn down the heat and add the 1 teaspoon soy sauce; it will spatter, so be careful. When most of the liquid is gone, add the ¼ cup sake and then turn the heat back up, bringing the mixture to a boil to burn off the alcohol.
    Browning soy sauce in frying pan while pasta boils on the other burner.
  • When the timer is up, transfer the cooked pasta directly to the skillet with the garlic, and then add a ladleful of pasta cooking water. Cook the spaghetti like risotto, adding additional pasta water as needed and stirring until it reaches your desired doneness (another 2-3 minutes).
    Tossing spaghetti with the olive oil and garlic.
  • Stir in the uni and ⅓ cup light cream and toss to coat the cooked spaghetti until it forms a creamy sauce.
    Stirring in uni cream sauce.
  • Serve the uni pasta topped with a few pieces of uni and garnish with 5 leaves green shiso cut into a chiffonade (thinly sliced).
    Garnishing with fresh sea urchin and green shiso.
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Nutrition Facts

Calories • 769kcalCarbohydrates • 80gProtein • 32gFat • 33gSaturated Fat • 11gPolyunsaturated Fat • 4gMonounsaturated Fat • 15gCholesterol • 326mgSodium • 259mgPotassium • 465mgFiber • 3gSugar • 3gVitamin A • 629IUVitamin C • 12mgCalcium • 77mgIron • 2mg

FAQ

What is Uni Pasta?

Uni Pasta is the Japanese version of the Italian urchin pasta recipe pasta con ricci di mare. It's made with sea urchin roe, garlic, and spaghetti, and the main difference is that this popular Japanese-style spaghetti is made with a cream-based sauce, whereas the Italian original is made with a lighter olive oil-based sauce.

How do you pronounce Uni Pasta?

Uni Pasta is a 5-syllable name pronounced as follows (read the italicized parts).
u like oops
ni like knee
pa like pond
su like soup
ta like tonic

What does uni taste like?

Like most foods, the taste of uni varies depending on where it is from and how it is processed. Generally speaking, uni is creamy, sweet, and briny with a good dose of umami. It should smell like a clean ocean breeze, but it should not smell fishy. Uni that's been processed with alum can taste bitter, so I recommend looking for one that is untreated.

Where can I find uni?

Fresh uni can usually be found at specialty seafood markets, high-end grocery stores, or Asian markets that offer a wide selection of seafood. If you're lucky enough to live on a coast, local fish markets are often the best places to find fresh uni. They typically carry products sourced from local fishermen and may even have sea urchins harvested on the same day. Several online seafood distributors have started offering fresh and frozen uni that can be shipped directly to you. Japanese markets, especially those that focus on fresh and traditional ingredients, often stock fresh uni.

Is there Uni Pasta in Italy?

Japanese uni pasta was likely inspired by the Italian dish spaghetti ai ricci di mare; it's a popular summertime dish in the coastal regions of Puglia, Sardinia, and Sicily. Unlike the Japanese version, it's made without cream, which makes it lighter.

Comments

    4.50 from 4 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Amy says

    February 17, 2025 at 8:45 am

    5 stars
    I substituted the anchovy for white miso and unsalted butter. It came out beautifully! Thank you!

    Reply
    • Marc Matsumoto says

      February 18, 2025 at 10:23 am

      Great call Amy! I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it!

      Reply
  2. oksana says

    April 04, 2022 at 4:03 am

    5 stars
    This is amazing! But I cant find Uni in Spain:((((((8

    Reply
    • Marc Matsumoto says

      April 04, 2022 at 10:40 am

      Thanks Oksana! I'm pretty sure I've had sea urchin in Spain before. Maybe try looking under the Spanish name "erizo de mar"?

      Reply
Marc Matsumoto

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