Creamy orecchiette with miso and eggplant

Name: Creamy orecchiette with miso and eggplant
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: Fresh Orecchiette pasta 1.1 lbs; Eggplant 1.1 lbs; Garlic 2 cloves; Parsley to taste; Extra virgin olive oil to taste; Fine salt to taste; Miso 1.8 oz; Soy sauce 4 tsp; Sesame oil 1 ½ tbsp; Lemon juice 1 tbsp; Rice vinegar 2 tsp; Fresh ginger 2 ½ tsp; Water 2 tbsp

Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Serving: 4
Cost: Average

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PRESENTATION

Creamy orecchiette with miso and eggplant starts with a sauce you wouldn't expect: white miso thinned with soy sauce, ginger, and a squeeze of lemon until it turns into something velvety and deeply savory. The eggplant goes into the pan first, softening until sweet, then meets the miso cream in a way that feels genuinely balanced rather than like a concept. It's an Italian-Asian fusion that works because the flavors are doing real work — the umami from the miso, the brightness from the lemon, the gentle heat from the ginger — rather than just signaling their own origins.

Orecchiette holds up well here because its small cups catch the miso cream rather than letting it slide off, so every forkful gets sauce. This miso eggplant pasta is vegetarian and comes together in a handful of steps, making it a practical weeknight option that still lands with enough depth that it feels worth making. If you've been curious about bringing Japanese-inspired flavors into pasta, this is a low-pressure place to start.

INGREDIENTS

Fresh Orecchiette pasta 1.1 lbs (500 g)

Eggplant 1.1 lbs (500 g)

Garlic 2 cloves

Parsley to taste

Extra virgin olive oil to taste

Fine salt to taste

For the miso cream: Miso 1.8 oz (50 g); Soy sauce 4 tsp (20 g); Sesame oil 1 ½ tbsp (20 g); Lemon juice 1 tbsp (15 g); Rice vinegar 2 tsp (10 g); Fresh ginger 2 ½ tsp (5 g); Water 2 tbsp (30 g)

Preparation

How to prepare Creamy orecchiette with miso and eggplant

To prepare the creamy miso and eggplant orecchiette, first trim the eggplants and cut them into cubes 1. Place the eggplant in a nonstick skillet in which you have heated a drizzle of oil with the garlic 2 and sauté over medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes. When they are nicely golden 3, season with salt and set aside.

Meanwhile, make the miso cream: in a jug combine the miso paste 4 with the soy sauce 5 and the lemon juice 6.

Also add the sesame oil 7, the rice vinegar 8 and the ginger 9.

Pour in a splash of water 10 and blend with an immersion blender 11 to obtain a creamy consistency 12.

Now cook the orecchiette in salted boiling water 13. Meanwhile, finely chop the parsley 14. Drain the orecchiette very al dente and transfer them to the skillet with the eggplant 15.

Moisten with a ladleful of the cooking water 16, add the miso cream 17 and finish cooking the pasta. With the heat off, toss with a drizzle of oil 18.

Finally, season with the chopped parsley 19. Plate immediately 20 and garnish with extra parsley if desired. Your creamy miso and eggplant orecchiette are ready to be served 21!