The midnight pasta to make for New Year’s Eve

By Eric Kim, The New York Times

Torpedo-shaped with large pectoral fins that look like wings, the majestic flying fish can propel itself out of the water and into the air, gliding across short distances to avoid predators.

You may be familiar with this fish’s eggs: tobiko. Delightfully briny and slightly sweet, the small, crunchy orange roe can be found coating a California roll or seasoning a mixture of spicy tuna. Typically preserved with salt, tobiko also comes in other hues and flavors depending on how it’s cured: red from beetroot, yellow from yuzu, black from squid ink or green from wasabi.

At Mr. Tuna, a sushi restaurant in Portland, Maine, the most popular menu item is a seafood roll topped with tempura flakes, scallions and a bed of shiny red tobiko. Chef Jordan Rubin said he likes the subtlety of red tobiko, not to mention the way it delivers “a nice clean fish flavor.” He piles it generously on top of the roll, so it’s “in your face,” rather than a decorative afterthought.

This is tobiko’s dilemma — and that of most sparkly, pretty things in the world: Its beauty often eclipses its function. Unless you’re ordering tobiko nigiri from a sushi menu, it can be easy to take for granted. Until you try cooking with it yourself.

Even better, tobiko is a fraction of the price of caviar, so you can have your roe at home and eat it, too. Many cooks, particularly in Japanese and Korean households, use flying fish roe in all kinds of creative ways that highlight its vibrant salinity: on top of a bowl of rice, stirred into mayonnaise and baked onto mussels, bejeweling a plate of creamy pasta.

When you’re craving the dynamic taste of the seaside, this speedy wafu, or Japanese-style, tobiko pasta hits the spot. In just 20 minutes, you can line your guests’ stomachs and ring out the old with a festive meal, glass of Champagne in hand. As with most pasta, this tastes especially great at midnight.

The only thing to cook here is the spaghetti or linguine, which is tossed with cream cheese and pasta water for a lovely sauce. Creamy but light, the sauce gains dimension from the tried-and-true combination of soy sauce and punchy wasabi paste, which mellows out once it meets the hot pasta. Finely chopped scallions lend freshness, while shredded nori drives the sushi feel home.

A healthy serving of tobiko is stirred into the pasta as well as dotted on top to lend rich seafood flavor — and a fun, poppy texture — with zero effort, though other roes, such as ikura (from salmon or trout) or masago (from capelin), work well, too. It doesn’t hurt that these roes are available in the refrigerated section near many supermarket fish counters these days.

Enjoy this midnight pasta with your favorite bubbly or sake, or follow Rubin’s lead and consider sparkling sake. As you pop a bottle or two, let these party noodles propel you across the short distance between one year’s end and another’s beginning.

Recipe: Tobiko Pasta

When you’re craving the dynamic flavors of sushi and the warmth of creamy pasta, this speedy meal hits the spot. It stars tobiko, the delightfully briny and slightly sweet flying fish roe that often coats the outside of a California roll. Other roes such as ikura (from salmon or trout) and masago (from capelin) work well too. They all lend rich seafood flavor with zero effort, not to mention fun pops of texture. The only thing you have to cook is the spaghetti, which gets tossed with cream cheese, cheddar and pasta water to become a lovely sauce. Creamy but light, the sauce gains dimension from the tried-and-true combination of soy sauce and the horseradish bite of wasabi paste, which mellows out once combined with the hot pasta. Enjoy with your favorite sparkling wine or sake.

By Eric Kim

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• Salt
• 1 pound spaghetti or linguine
• 4 ounces cream cheese, cut into small pieces
• 1 (2-ounce) chunk extra-sharp white cheddar or Parmesan, finely grated through a microplane or the smallest holes on a box grater
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon wasabi paste
• 1 heaping tablespoon tobiko, masago or ikura, plus more for serving (see Tip)
• Nori, cut into thin matchsticks with scissors, and thinly sliced scallions, for serving

Preparation

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Reserve 2 cups of the cooking water. Drain the pasta and return to its pot.

2. Add the cream cheese, white cheddar, soy sauce, wasabi, tobiko and 3/4 cup of the reserved cooking water. Toss until combined and the cheeses are melted, adding splashes of the pasta cooking water, as needed, to thin out the sauce, 2 to 3 minutes. Taste and season with salt.

3. To serve, plate the pasta, then top each serving with a little nori, scallion and more tobiko.