I opened a bottle of good shiraz and I needed something to eat with it, so I knocked together a little pasta.

Yield is two hefty servings, plus a bit for leftovers.

• 100 g bacon, diced
• 200 g mushrooms, split into bite sizes
• 1/2 onion, julienned
• 30 g gochujang
• 30 g tomato paste
• 20 g sesame oil
• Splash of red wine. You’ll figure it out.
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 10 g butter
• 150 g pappardelle pasta

In a thick bottomed pan, render bacon on medium heat until barely browned, not yet fully cooked.

Add mushrooms, tossing to coat in the bacon fat. Sweat the mushrooms until they are soft, cooking out the water in the mushrooms.

Bring 2L of water to a boil for the pasta.

Add the onions and increase heat to begin sautéing. Once the onions have softened and are starting to color, add the tomato paste, gochujang, and sesame oil and gently sauté.

Begin boiling pasta.

Once the tomato and pepper pastes begin to caramelize, deglaze with a splash of red wine. Add the butter and green onion. Toss to coat.

Once the pasta is al dente, ladle 50 g of pasta water into the sauce and stir to mix. Move the pasta to the sauce to finish cooking. Add additional pasta water if needed to thin the sauce.

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I really, really love gochujang. It’s cheap, stores well, and it’s so rich. If I need a little oomph while cooking at home I know gochujang, tahini, and miso paste have my back.

If I had some on hand I’d have used a Korean style pork. I also considered liver sausage; I might make a version of this in two days with a nice liver pudding I have in the freezer.

I could have skipped the green onion in favor of a little more yellow onion. The color didn’t come through. But I had them, so I used them.

This rocked. One of the best off the cuff meals I’ve ever made.