In Japanese cuisine, dashi traditionally means kombu and bonito. This one is made from tomatoes — and chefs who taste it for the first time often pause mid-sip. The umami is deeply concentrated, the acidity is clean, and the flavor is unmistakably, distinctly tomato.
The Soprano Tomatoes come from a small family-owned farm in Niigata and are harvested at peak maturity. Sweeter than a Roma, brighter than a cherry tomato, their umami-active amino acid content is more than three times that of a standard tomato — concentrated at the source, before any cooking begins. Tomatoes that don't meet the farm's visual standards — too small, cracked, or irregularly shaped — are dried and blended into this dashi rather than discarded.
Basil, oregano, and tomato powder round out the blend. The herb profile is Mediterranean, which puts this dashi as comfortably in a beurre blanc or a braise as it is in a Japanese clear soup. It works cleanly with cream, cheese, and shellfish, and holds its own as a dry seasoning base for meat and fish.
Ayako, Umami Curator at The House of Umami, visited the production facility in Niigata and walked the floor firsthand. She watched the dashi-making process from raw ingredient to finished pack — the precision at each stage, the quiet focus of the people at work, and the cleanliness of an operation that takes what it does seriously. The Soprano Tomato dashi is made in the same facility. She came back knowing.
The sachet simmers whole for a clear tomato broth, or can be opened and used directly as a seasoning in sauces, braises, marinades, and rubs.
No chemical seasonings. No animal-derived ingredients.
