The viral recipe test · November 13, 2026
Does the viral nori pasta (seaweed sesame pasta) work?
Fix it and it's genuinely good, a five minute pantry sauce that tastes like a restaurant did something clever with your seaweed snacks. Skip the fixes and you get clumpy green paste or scrambled egg spaghetti.
The recipe: dirtykoreann · @dirtykoreann on Instagram
The sauce started as an Instagram recipe from a creator going by dirtykoreann, who blends roasted nori with sesame, soy sauce and egg yolk into a paste and tosses it with hot pasta. It spread fast this fall as remake after remake, from home cooks to food blogs to Marion Grasby, who posted her own prawn version crediting the same "umami pasta hack" this month.
See the original: Recipe credited to @dirtykoreann, via a remake post with his amounts ↗
What goes wrong, and the fix
Spaghetti tossed in a glossy sauce made from blitzed seaweed snacks, sesame, soy sauce, garlic and egg yolk, no cream needed.
- People dump the hot pasta straight into the nori and egg yolk mix and end up with little threads of cooked egg instead of a silky sauce.Temper the yolk first. Stir a splash of the hot starchy pasta water into the nori paste before the pasta goes in, so the yolk warms up gradually instead of scrambling on contact.
- The sauce turns into a thick, pasty clump that sits on top of the noodles instead of coating them, because people don't save enough pasta water or add it all at once.Reserve a full cup of pasta water before draining, and add it a splash at a time while tossing, until the sauce turns glossy and loose enough to coat a spoon thinly.
- Using plain unseasoned nori sheets and the dish tastes flat and seaweedy with nothing to round it out.Use roasted, lightly salted seaweed snack packs, not sushi nori, and season the pasta water itself with soy sauce instead of salt so the noodles carry flavor from the inside.
- Blending whole nori sheets with the sesame seeds leaves gritty flecks that never fully soften, so the sauce feels sandy instead of smooth.Tear the nori into small pieces first and pulse it with the sesame seeds until it is closer to a fine powder, not just broken flakes, before you add any liquid.
- Garlic goes in raw and overwhelms the whole bowl, or burns if people try to fry it first and add it late.Use grated or very finely minced garlic and let it sit in the sauce rather than frying it, the residual heat from the pasta mellows it without turning it harsh.
Chef's version
You need
- 6 oz (170g) spaghetti or angel hair
- 3 packets (about 0.5 oz total) roasted, lightly salted seaweed snack sheets, torn into small pieces
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce, plus 2 tablespoons for the pasta water
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 small clove garlic, grated or minced very fine
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter (optional, makes it richer)
- Reserved pasta water, up to 1 cup
- Optional toppings: cooked shrimp, chili crisp, grated parmesan, sliced chives
How to make it
- Bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Add 2 tablespoons soy sauce to the water instead of salt, this seasons the noodles from inside as they cook.
- While the water heats, pulse the torn seaweed and sesame seeds in a food processor or spice grinder until it's a fine, almost powdery crumble, not just broken flakes.
- Move the ground nori mix to a large heatproof bowl. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce, sesame oil, grated garlic, sugar and egg yolk until you have a thick paste.
- Cook the pasta until just shy of al dente, it will finish cooking in the sauce. Before draining, scoop out and save at least 1 cup of the pasta water.
- Stir a splash of the hot pasta water into the nori paste first, whisking it in, so the yolk warms gently and doesn't scramble.
- Add the drained hot pasta straight into the bowl along with the butter if using. Toss hard, adding more pasta water a tablespoon at a time, until the sauce turns glossy and coats every strand thinly, not clumped.
- Taste and adjust with a little more soy sauce or sugar if it tastes flat. Plate immediately and top with shrimp, chili crisp, parmesan or chives if you like.
Good to know
- If you only have plain sushi nori, bump up the soy sauce slightly since the seasoned snack packs already carry salt.
- The sauce seizes fast once the egg yolk sees real heat, so have your pasta water and pasta ready to go before you start tempering.
- This scales down awkwardly for one serving, the sauce ratios get fiddly, so it's easier to make the full batch and eat leftovers cold, it holds up well.
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It works
It worksHow Chef tests: he reads the creator's recipe and video, the remakes and the comments from people who made it, and checks the ratios against classic versions of the dish. He hasn't stood at a stove for these, and doesn't say he has. Every photo is credited; "a photo like it" means it isn't the creator's own. Chef Amazing isn't paid by anyone named here.
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