Question: What Is The Origin Of Mentaiko Pasta?
By: Alisa Escanlar
Published: May 2, 2010

Mentaiko pasta is a Japanese dish and it uses mentaiko, butter and spaghetti noodles. I'm curious to know how this dish started and why did they use Italian pasta instead of the Japanese noodles that they have

Answers:
Chris Paulk

Mentaiko is the roe or fish eggs from a pollack. Because of the size of the noodle and texture, angel hair pasta (which is commonly used) may be more mild in flavor and complementary in size and texture to the Mentaiko.
There is sometimes a consideration for how well the sauces "stick" to a pasta and the traditional Italian pasta may just be a better fit for this dish.