This creamy Gochujang Pasta is perfectly spicy, savory, and flavorful! Make this in under 15 minutes with just 6 ingredients!
Gochujang might just be my current favorite ingredient to use. It's a common spice in Korean cooking, made of fermented chili paste. It is spicy, but with more flavor than a typical hot sauce. It actually reminds me a little bit of miso paste – just spicier! And it works so well as a creamy gochujang pasta dish!
If you love these asian-style pasta dishes, try my Mentaiko Pasta or my Midnight Pasta!
Table of Contents:
📖 Recipe Origins
Gochujang is a Korean fermented chili paste made from gochu-jaru (chili powder), glutinous rice, and fermented soybean powder. It is used in many Korean dishes, most notably in tteokbokki, a spicy rice cake dish.
Gochujang pasta is similar to a style called wafu-style, which typically refers to japanese fusion pasta dishes. Of course, this is Korean, not Japanese, but the use of Italian ingredients in conjunction with the Korean chili paste is reminiscent of wafu-style pasta.
🎥 Watch the video of this recipe
🍝 Why you'll love Gochujang Pasta
- Perfectly Balanced. Gochujang pasta is sweet, savory, and spicy, but not too much of any of it!
- Easy 10 minute recipe! The longest part of this recipe is boiling the pasta! Everything else comes together sooo quickly.
- Simple Ingredients. Easy to find, easy to use!
🥘 What you need for this recipe
Ingredients and Substitutions:
- Spaghetti - Spaghetti works best for this recipe, but any pasta shape will work! If gluten-free, GF pasta is great too.
- Gochujang Paste - You can find this at any Asian market, and even in most grocery stores. Don't substitute.
- Garlic - Fresh garlic, minced or sliced! Pre-minced would be okay in this recipe, but fresh is always preferred.
- Butter - Unsalted or salted is fine, and vegan butter works too!
- Heavy Cream - I don't recommend substituting this. If you wanted to make it dairy free, coconut cream might work, but I haven't tested it.
- Parmesan - Fresh grated parm is always recommended!
- Scallions or Chives - Optional, fresh sliced.
Tools and Equipment:
- Sharp Knife
- Medium Pot
- Medium Nonstick Pan
📋 How to make Gochujang Pasta
Step 1: Prepare Ingredients
Begin by finely mincing 4 garlic cloves until they're nearly a paste.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and boil the pasta according to box instructions.
Drain pasta, set aside. Reserve at least ¼ cup of pasta water.
Step 2: Make the Sauce
In a medium-large nonstick pan, add a drizzle of olive oil (about 1 tbsp) and 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat.
Once the butter is melted, add the garlic and stir to saute.
Once the garlic is fragrant and almost golden, add the gochujang paste.
Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to mix the gochujang with the garlic, and let the gochujang paste cook for 1-3 minutes.
Once the gochujang is a slightly darker color, add the heavy cream and stir to combine.
Step 3: Finishing Touches
Add the cooked pasta to the sauce in the pan and stir to combine.
Grate parmesan over the pasta and add salt as well as the other tablespoon of butter.
Stir until the butter is emulsified into the sauce.
If necessary, add pasta water to thin the sauce.
Serve hot and garnish with sliced scallions or chopped chives.
💭 Expert Tips & Tricks
- Be sure to cook the gochujang, similarly to how you would cook tomato paste, before adding the heavy cream. This will give the gochujang pasta a richer and deeper flavor.
- If you want to try to make this vegan, I recommend using vegan butter & vegan parmesan, and use coconut cream in place of the heavy cream. You may need to add more salt and/or more gochujang to mask the sweetness.
- If you like more heat, add more gochujang! This recipe will yield a very mild spice, so add more if you like more.
Storage & Reheating Tips:
- Store in the Fridge: Wait until the pasta comes to room temperature and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 4-5 days.
- Store in the Freezer: Store in a freezer-safe airtight container for up to about 3 months.
- How to Reheat: Always inspect leftovers for impurities or mold by using your eyes and nose. Reheat by adding to a nonstick pan with a dash of olive oil over medium heat until heated through. Garnish with fresh parmesan.
Recipe FAQs
Gochujang and tomato paste, though they look similar, are not even remotely the same thing! Tomato paste is reduced tomato concentrate, while gochujang has no tomato in it and is a fermented chili paste. The two are not interchangable for gochujang pasta.
Gochujang is best used when mixed into something else, such as a creamy sauce, a dipping sauce, a stew for tteokbokki or stewing meats, etc.
Gochujang ranks at less than 1,000 Scoville Heat Units, which is significantly less than a jalapeño, so it ranks as a mild spice.
Related Recipes
📖 Recipe
Creamy Gochujang Pasta (15 Minutes!)
Equipment
- Sharp Knife
- Medium-sized pot
- medium nonstick pan
Ingredients
- 6 oz Spaghetti or other long pasta
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 2 tablespoon Butter sliced in half
- ½ cup Heavy Cream
- 1½ tablespoon Gochujang
- ¼ cup Parmesan freshly grated
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- Scallions for garnish
Instructions
- Begin by finely mincing 4 garlic cloves until they're nearly a paste.
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and boil the pasta according to box instructions.
- Drain pasta, set aside. Reserve at least ¼ cup of pasta water.
- In a medium-large nonstick pan, add a drizzle of olive oil (about 1 tbsp) and 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat.
- Once the butter is melted, add the garlic and stir to saute.
- Once the garlic is fragrant and almost golden, add the gochujang paste.
- Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to mix the gochujang with the garlic, and let the gochujang paste cook for 1-3 minutes.
- Once the gochujang is a slightly darker color, add the heavy cream and stir to combine.
- Add the cooked pasta to the sauce in the pan and stir to combine.
- Grate parmesan over the pasta and add salt as well as the other tablespoon of butter.
- Stir until the butter is emulsified into the sauce.
- If necessary, add pasta water to thin the sauce.
- Serve hot and garnish with sliced scallions or chopped chives.
Video
Notes
- Be sure to cook the gochujang, similarly to how you would cook tomato paste, before adding the heavy cream. This will give it a richer and deeper flavor.
- If you want to try to make this vegan, I recommend using vegan butter & vegan parmesan, and use coconut cream in place of the heavy cream. You may need to add more salt and/or more gochujang to mask the sweetness.
- If you like more heat, add more gochujang! This recipe will yield a very mild spice, so add more if you like more.
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