• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header left navigation
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • Course
    • One Bowl Meals
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch / Dinner
      • Appetizers
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
    • Snacks
    • Drinks
      • Summer drinks
      • Cold weather drinks
      • Cocktail hour
  • Ingredient
    • Chicken, duck & turkey
    • Meat
    • Seafood
    • Eggs
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Vegetables
    • Rice & grains
    • Noodles
    • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • How-tos
    • Ingredients
    • Tools
Umami Days

Umami Days

Meaty with a dash of veggies

  • Newsletter
  • Sidebar
    • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • Archive
  • Newsletter
  • Recipe index
    • By Meal
      • One Bowl Meals
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / Dinner
        • Appetizers
        • Salads
        • Soups
        • Main Courses
        • Side Dishes
        • Sweets
      • Snacks
      • Drinks
        • Summer drinks
        • Cold weather drinks
        • Cocktail hour
    • By Main Protein
      • Chicken, duck & turkey
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By Carb
      • Rice & grains
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • How-tos
    • Ingredients
    • Tools
  • Sidebar
    • Dining
    • Edible Garden
    • Food Tales
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact
Noodles Asian noodles Lunch / Dinner Main Courses One Bowl Meals Snacks

Naporitan (Japanese ketchup spaghetti)

Published: 06.30.2022 ยป Last updated: 01.09.2023

A yoshoku, or Western-style dish, ketchup spaghetti, or Napolitan, was invented in 1945 by Shigetada Irie, head chef of Hotel New Grand in Yokohama, to please Gen. Douglas MacArthur who occupied the hotel as his headquarters and, later, as residence for American military officers.

Naporitan (Japanese ketchup spaghetti)

The original Napolitan had canned tomato puree for its sauce and bacon for the meat. As it evolved over the years and adapted for Japanese home cooking, ketchup and sliced sausages, both cheaper than tomato puree and bacon, became standard ingredients.

As you can imagine, there are so many versions of this simple dish. This recipe was inspired by a tutorial in an episode of Izakaya Bottakuri, a show on Netflix about two sisters who run a diner that they inherited from their parents.

Steps in making sauce for Naporitan (Japanese ketchup spaghetti)

The Naporitan sauce is a mixture of tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, sugar and milk which are stirred together until fully blended.

Sauteeing garlic, bell peppers and onion in butter

To cook Naporitan, melt butter in a pan and saute onion, garlic and bell pepper just until starting to soften. Because butter burns fast, remember to set the heat to MEDIUM during this stage.

Adding sliced sausages to sauteed onion, garlic and bell pepper

Add the sliced sausages to the sauteed vegetables and cook, tossing often, until heated through.

Pouring Naporita sauce into pan with sausages

Pour in the sauce, stir and allow to boil. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if needed. You might want a different flavor balance and this is the time to customize the taste of the sauce.

Tossing pasta in sauce to make Naporitan (Japanese ketchup spaghetti)

Dump in the cooked pasta and toss until every strand of noodle is coated with sauce and the sausages and vegetables are evenly distributed.

Naporitan (Japanese ketchup spaghetti)

Connie Veneracion
Simple and strangely comforting, this pasta dish with sweet sour sauce can be cooked in 15 minutes. The key is to cook the sauce in one pan while the noodles are boiling in another.
Naporitan (Japanese ketchup spaghetti)
Print Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes mins
Cook Time 18 minutes mins
Course Main Course, Snack
Cuisine Japanese
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 180 grams spaghetti
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 medium yellow onion - peeled and thinly sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic - peeled and chopped
  • 1 large bell pepper - julienned
  • 300 grams sausages - (frankfurters were used here) thinly sliced

Sauce

  • ยฝ cup ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • ยผ teaspoon pepper

Instructions
 

  • Dump the spaghetti in plenty of boiling water.
  • While the pasta cooks, melt the butter in a pan.
  • Saute the sliced onion, chopped garlic and julienned bell pepper until a bit softened.
  • Add the sliced sausages and cook until heated through.
  • Mix together all the ingredients for the sauce and pour into the pan with the sausages.
  • Stir and cook until boiling.
  • Drain the spaghetti and dump into the sauce. Toss well.
  • Serve your Naporitan sprinkled with grated Parmesan.
Print Pin Recipe
Keyword Pasta, Spaghetti

Recipes and stories in your inbox

  • #26 More than one way to enjoy miso soup
    05.26.2023
    Basic miso soup has tofu, wakame and scallions. But you can add more vegetables, or even meat, mushrooms or seafood, and it won’t be sacrilege.
More Noodles
Creamy chicken and macaroni soup (Filipino sopas)

Creamy chicken and macaroni soup

Left: wrong way to serve pasta. Right: correct way to serve pasta

How to serve pasta: sauce over noodles or noodles in sauce?

Soy sesame scallion noodles

Soy sesame scallion noodles

Bacon spinach cream cheese macaroni

Bacon, spinach and cream cheese macaroni

Spaghettini with chorizo, asparagus and cherry tomatoes

Spaghettini with chorizo, asparagus and cherry tomatoes

Cheesy Chicken Pasta Salad in Red Plate

Chicken and pasta salad

Sidebar

Connie Veneracion, Chiang Mai, 2020

Hi, I’m Connie!

Welcome to Umami Days, a blog that advocates innovative home cooking for pleasurable everyday dining. No trendy diets, no food fads and definitely no ludicrous recipe names like crustless quiche, noodleless pho or chocolate lasagna.

More about me and Umami Days ยป

  • About
  • Recipes
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact

Umami Days is powered by Apple, coffee & one bowl meals · Copyright © 2023 Connie Veneracion · All Rights Reserved