Shiso Pesto Pasta with Uni

By Marc Matsumoto, No Recipes

When I was little, my grandparents had huge bushes of shiso in the back yard of their home in Kadogawa, Japan. Every morning, I would be dispatched to pick some leaves for breakfast.  Shiso is one of those ingredients that’s rare enough in the US that most groceries that carry it will put five leaves in a pack and charge you a buck fifty. That relegates it to garnish duty most of the time, which is sad, because it has such a wonderful flavor. Imagine my delight when I found two vendors at the Union Square Farmers Market selling whole bunches of shiso, complete with flowering stalks, a few weeks ago. I happily counted out three dollars and change, and as I walked away with my find, it occurred to me that this was an awful lot of shiso. Pesto may seem like a cop out, but the fresh, almost minty aroma of green shiso pairs marvelously with grassy green olive oil. When you toss it with long strands of golden pasta and top it with a few pieces of sweet creamy sea urchin, it makes for a sublime pasta dish that’s like the sexy hapa offspring of a Japanese-Italian couple.

2 ounces green shiso leaves (japanese perilla)
1 ounces grated pecorino romano
1 teaspoon kosher salt (halve if using regular salt)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon lime juice (from 1/2 a lime)
8 ounces linguine, cooked according to package directions
small handful of pine nuts or coco nibs, toasted
1 ounce uni (optional)

Put the shiso, cheese, salt, olive oil, and lime juice, in a blender or the work-bowl of a food processor and whirl it around until it’s a fine green puree.

Boil the pasta according to the package directions in generously salted water. When the pasta is done, strain it well and toss it in a bowl adding the pesto a bit at a time until it reaches your desired level of flavor.

Plate the pasta and top with toasted pine nuts or coco nibs. You can also add some uni or ikura on top for some extra color and brine.