Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (2024)

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This Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta was inspired by the pork belly ssam (쌈) that I always order at Korean barbecue. Succulent pieces of pork belly in a spicy, creamy, and umami pasta sauce. Topped with parmesan cheese, egg, and green onions. This recipe is so easy!

Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (1)

What is a Ssamjang (쌈장)?

Ssam (쌈) in Korean means "wrapped" and usually refers to a dish that consists of a leaf-wrapped piece of meat or barbecue. The main condiment or sauce that accompanies this dish is ssamjang.

Ssamjang (쌈장) is a Korean fermented and seasoned soybean paste. The main components of the sauce are soybean paste(doenjang/된장), red chili paste(gochujang/고추장), garlic, onion, roasted sesame, and sugar. The sauce has strong umami, garlic, and chili flavors while being slightly sweet. The brand of ssamjang that I used was not spicy at all.

Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (2)

What is the difference between Ssamjang and Gochujang?

Gochujang (고추장) is a smooth red chili paste, while Ssamjang (쌈장) is a textured mixture of soybean and chili paste. Both will work in this recipe.

Gochujang is often used in Korean soups, stews, and as a sauce for bibimbap (Korean rice dish). Ssamjang is the main condiment for ssam (Korean lettuce wraps).

What can I substitute Ssamjang with?

In this recipe, you can easily substitute ssamjang with gochujang. The flavors are slightly different but will still be delicious nonetheless. Another great substitution would be Chinese fermented chili bean paste (doubanjiang/豆瓣酱). These alternatives will all bring umami to the pasta.

Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (3)
Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (4)

Why salt your pasta water?

Cooking pasta in salted water seasons the pasta while it cooks. The salt will absorb and penetrate the pasta giving you flavor dispersed throughout the whole dish.

How much salt to add to your water? Well, a good real of thumb is to cook your pasta in water that tastes like the sea. It's a lot of salt, but only a small amount is retained in the final product. Never rinse your pasta!

Save your pasta water!

Always reserve about 1 cup of pasta water as your pasta finishes cooking. This salty and starchy water will do many things:

  • It seasons the dish
  • Thickens the sauce
  • Helps the pasta and sauce hold together
  • Gives you a beautiful, creamy, and silky finish

Save that pasta water, it makes all the difference!

Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (5)

Key Ingredients

  • Pasta: I used spaghetti, but feel free to use other shapes. Penne and rigatoni would be divine.
  • Pork belly: I used thinly sliced pork belly, but other proteins would work as well. Bulgogi, grilled chicken, sliced ham, bacon, or even marinated tofu could be great alternatives.
  • Butter: Unsalted butter.
  • Ssamjang: Ssamjang is a fermented Korean seasoned soybean paste. The brand I used was by Sempio and can be found in your Asian supermarket in the condiments section, usually next to gochujang.
  • Cream: I used half and half cream. A mixture of dairy like cream and milk will also work.
  • Pasta water: Often times dubbed "liquid gold". The starchy pasta water is what brings the whole sauce together. Make sure to save a cup right before straining your pasta.
  • Parmesan cheese: Finely grated cheese melts into the sauce like a dream. Perfect for garnishing as well.

Tips!

  • Serve with kimchi: The pasta works really well with kimchi on the side. Highly recommend it along with other Korean banchan side dishes.
  • Add extra ingredients: This recipe is similar to Asian carbonara recipes. Feel free to add mushrooms, shredded ham, corn, or anything else!
  • Pasta water: save your pasta water to help bring the sauce together!
  • Season your food: Make sure you're seasoning your food as you go. Keep in mind that the pasta water is heavily salted and will contribute a lot of saltiness to the dish.

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Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (6)
Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (7)

Yield: 2 servings

Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta

Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (8)

This creamy Korean ssamjang (쌈장) pasta was inspired by the pork belly ssam (쌈) that I always order at Korean barbecue. Succulent pieces of pork belly in a spicy, creamy, and umami pasta sauce.

Cook Time25 minutes

Total Time25 minutes

Ingredients

  • 200g spaghetti
  • 2 slabs pork belly (~150g)

Sauce

  • 1 tbsp Butter
  • 1 tbsp Minced garlic
  • 3 tbsp Ssamjang
  • ⅓ cup Parmesan cheese + more for serving
  • ¾ cup Cream (~200g)
  • Black pepper to taste

  • Red pepper flakes to taste
  • Reserved pasta water
  • Salt to taste

Optional garnish and serving

  • Green onions
  • Soft boiled egg
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Kimchi

Instructions

  1. Pan-fry pork belly until cooked through. Cut into smaller chunks, lightly season with salt and set aside.
  2. Add pasta to salted boiling water.
  3. While the pasta is cooking, melt butter in a pan and sauté garlic and ssamjang. Add cream, stir together and simmer over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add pork belly to reheat.
  4. Once pasta is al dente, reserve about 1 cup of pasta water before straining. Add pasta to sauce and mix in parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, and pepper. Slowly drizzle in pasta water a little bit at a time while mixing. You won’t use all of the pasta water, just add enough until the sauce is nice and silky.
  5. Season with salt to taste if necessary. Top with more parmesan cheese, spring onions, and a soft boiled egg.
  6. Enjoy!

Did you make this recipe?

Leave a comment/rating on the blog or tag me in a photo @erictriesit

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Comments

  1. Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (12)JulieD

    This looks amazing, Eric!!!

    Reply

  2. Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (13)Omhyjosh

    Super creative recipe and tastes just as good as it looks!! Simple and straightforward with easy to get ingredients. Easily one of my new fav recipes 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Creamy Korean Ssamjang (쌈장) Pasta Recipe - EricTriesIt (2024)

FAQs

What can I do with ssamjang sauce? ›

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  5. Side Dish: Water Spinach in Ssamjang | Korean Style Steamed KangKong. ...
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  7. Simple Korean Tofu Soup.

What does Korean ssamjang taste like? ›

Spicy, intensely savory, slightly sweet, and wholly umami, the paste cuts through the richness of food much like kimchi provides welcome acidity to everything from stews to mac and cheese. Ssamjang's potency means a little goes a long way.

What is a substitute for ssamjang? ›

Ssamjang has a very unique taste that is difficult to replicate. Using simple doenjang may make up for the texture aspect of the sauce. Sambal oelek is a Thai chili garlic paste that has a similar flavor profile to Ssamjang. Another option you can try as a substitute is mixing chili garlic paste with some sesame oil.

What is the difference between gochujang and ssamjang? ›

Ssamjang is more of a bean basted slightly spicy salty nutty sauce used when you are eating meat. Gochujang is a pepper based sauce that is more spicy and less salty and nutty. Gochujang is used in stews or eaten with green peppers( you dip the pepper in gochjang) or used as a sauce base.

Is ssamjang the same as Gojuchang? ›

Ssamjang is basically gochujang and doenjang combined, with some sesame, garlic and other wonderful ingredients that make it have this almost peanut butter-like texture. You may have seen ssamjang in lettuce wraps (Ssambap) at some Korean BBQ.

Can I eat ssamjang by itself? ›

It also has a little bit of garlic and some rice wine or some chopped fresh peppers, and definitely plenty of sesame oil. The recipe, like any good food, varies from house to house and is a specialty condiment used in a lot of meals, or even by itself.

What is ssamjang in english? ›

Ssamjang, meaning "sauce for wraps" in Korean, has a wonderful combination of sweet, spicy and salty elements.

Can you eat ssamjang with rice? ›

Ssambap is most commonly eaten as some sort of protein (beef, chicken, or pork) wrapped with rice and ssamjang (wrap sauce) in lettuce leaves. Everyone has their own ideas about this condiment, so there's a lot of variation. Although you can buy ssamjang sauce in the store, there's just nothing like making it at home.

What food goes well with ssamjang? ›

Pan-fried chicken, grilled skirt steak, roast squash—these are all dishes that would benefit from being served alongside a bowl of ssamjang. Beyond the world of condiments, ssamjang could also be used to marinate meat.

Do you need to refrigerate Samjang? ›

Should I refrigerate a Korean samjang sauce? - Quora. Yes, you should it. It is not easily decayed, but for long preservation, putting it into refrigerator is recommended. Because in too warm temperature it is fermented and taste would be changed from optimal taste.

What is the green thing that Koreans eat? ›

Several types of wild greens, known collectively as chwinamul (such as Aster scaber), are a popular dish, and other wild vegetables such as bracken fern shoots (gosari) or Korean bellflower root (doraji) are also harvested and eaten in season.

How long does ssamjang paste last? ›

It's best just after you make it, but you can store it in the fridge about 10 days, if you need to.

Why is it called ssamjang? ›

Ssam means "wrapped" and jang means "paste" or "thick sauce". Together as ssamjang they mean "wrapping sauce".

Can I use ssamjang instead of gochujang for bibimbap? ›

If you have a tub of ssamjang, it's great as a bibimbap sauce as well. The salty, spicy, and slightly sweet and umami packed gochujang doesn't really need much of anything else for bibimbap. I simply use some water to thin it out for easy mixing and add a little bit of sugar and sesame oil.

Can you eat ssamjang by itself? ›

It also has a little bit of garlic and some rice wine or some chopped fresh peppers, and definitely plenty of sesame oil. The recipe, like any good food, varies from house to house and is a specialty condiment used in a lot of meals, or even by itself.

Can you use ssamjang in ramen? ›

Put cooking oil, green onion, and red pepper powder in a pot and stir-fry over low heat. If it smells like green onion, add soy sauce and stir-fry over low heat. Add water and ramen powder and boil. When the water boils, add ramen and ssamjang and boil.

Is ssamjang ready to eat? ›

SSAMJANG is a prepared, ready-to-eat condiment paste. GOCHUJANG is a Korean ingredient. Although some may use it as a dip (spice addicts like OPPA), it's most often used as a component in a recipe- like marinades, soup/stew or the ever popular TTEOKBOKKI (spicy rice cakes) can be made with this.

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