Japanese pasta with pork belly, cream and yuzu kosho

Instructions

1. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil.
   
2. Place the spinach into a large, heatproof bowl and prepare a second bowl of iced water. Ladle a little boiling water over the spinach to lightly wilt, then transfer the spinach into the ice water to cool. Rinse well, then trim the stems and roughly chop into 5 cm lengths. Set aside.
   
3. Cook the pasta in the salted boiling water, according to the package directions, checking 2 minutes before the recommended cooking time printed on the package, for al dente. Scoop out 1 cup of pasta cooking water and reserve for later, then drain the pasta.
   
4. While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the pork belly and garlic and cook, stirring, until the pork is lightly browned. Stir through the cream, yuzu kosho and ½ - 1 cup of the reserved pasta water. Add the cooked pasta to the pan and stir until the sauce is the consistency of pouring cream. Stir through the blanched spinach, then transfer the Japanese-style spaghetti with pork, cream and yuzu kosho to a large serving plate. Sprinkle with the spring onion and serve.

• Ladling the water over the spinach helps avoid any dirt from the spinach from getting into the pasta water.
• Yuzu kosho is available at Japanese groceries. You can also make your own - you need equal weights yuzu zest (from green underripe yuzu), green bird’s eye chilli and then 10% salt (e.g: 50 g yuzu zest, 50 g green chilli and 10 g salt).