Beef and Miso Meat Sauce Pasta (No Tomato)

Prep the ground beef. Ice is added to ground meat during production to counter the heat from friction, so with beef about 10% is moisture rather than meat. To draw out this moisture, spread the ground meat over two layers of paper towel and sprinkle 1 teaspoon of sugar over the whole surface. The sugar comes out along with the water, so it does not go into the meat.

Pat it lightly to work the sugar evenly into the meat, then sprinkle another 1 teaspoon of sugar so that the grains are visible over the whole surface. Cover it with a lid (a plate or similar) and leave it that way until the dish is finished to draw out the moisture.

At the same time, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Set a frying pan over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Since the beef itself releases fat, 1 tablespoon of oil is enough for the sauce.

Add salt to the boiling water (about 1.5% per 1L of water). Start boiling 160g of pasta for 7 minutes, one minute less than the 8 minutes on the package.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of umami seasoning (Hi-Me) to the frying pan. Because its components dissolve easily in water and blend into the liquid, emulsification is promoted even with very little moisture.

Check the prepped ground meat. The sugar has almost disappeared, and the meat has lost its moisture and turned dry and meaty. The moisture that has come out (more than 10% of the weight of the meat) is not needed, so squeeze it lightly and discard it. This dramatically improves the aroma of the meat.

Add 1 heaping tablespoon of miso to the drained ground meat and put it straight into the frying pan.

Lower the heat and cook it slowly. Heating gently at low temperature keeps the moisture in the ground meat. Almost no liquid comes out, the ground meat coats itself in the olive oil and absorbs it, and the fat from the meat itself comes out. The small amount of remaining sugar combines with the miso to become the pasta sauce.

One minute before the pasta is done, keep the heat very low and add 10g of butter for aroma. It mixes in the moment the pasta goes in, so be careful not to cook off the butter's aroma or draw out excess moisture.

Transfer the pasta, boiled for 7 minutes, to the frying pan and add 1 tablespoon of the pasta cooking water.

Raise the heat and toss it briefly; it emulsifies and it is done. Serve on a plate. The ground meat finishes beautifully, retaining a slight reddish color.