Japanese-Style Summertime Pasta Salad

Hiyashi Chuka

Makes: 4 servings

Time: 30 minutes

F V

A Japanese summertime staple — flexible like a chef’s salad, only based on noodles and dressed with a pleasantly sweet, brothy dressing that pulls everything together. Ramen noodles are traditional here; great fresh ones are more available now than when I first wrote this book, so seek them out. You can also substitute soba, somen, or even spaghetti as long as you adjust the cooking time. I serve this for guests — it’s fun to set up a buffet table — or make it as a way to clean out the fridge or gorge on something ripe and in season. (See the list that follows for a start with possible toppings.)

• Salt
• ½ cup Kombu Dashi (page 100) or water
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce, or more to taste
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons wasabi powder, or more to taste
• ¼ cup boiling water
• 12 ounces dried or fresh ramen noodles
• 1 cucumber, peeled if you want, halved, seeded (see page 49), and thinly sliced
• ½ cup lightly packed shredded nori
• ¼ cup pickled ginger (to make your own, see page 207)
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (see page 299)
• ¼ cup sliced scallions

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil and salt it. Stir together the dashi, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, and fresh ginger in a small bowl. Taste, add more soy sauce if necessary, and let sit. Dissolve the wasabi in the ¼ cup boiling water; let cool and thicken for a few minutes. Add a little more powder if it seems too thin.
2. Drop the ramen into the pot of boiling water and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but not mushy. Start tasting after 1 minute; the cooking time can vary by a few minutes. Drain, rinse in a colander under cold running water, and drain again.
3. For individual servings, divide the noodles among 4 serving bowls, then divvy up the cucumber, nori, and pickled ginger among them. (In Japan, these ingredients are usually nested in individual piles on top of or around the noodles, though you can just scatter the toppings over the noodles if that seems too fussy.) Top each salad with a pinch toasted sesame seeds and the scallions.
4. Serve the noodles with small bowls of the dressing on the side for diners to dress and toss the salad at the table. Pass wasabi to season the noodles.

12 Toppings for Japanese-Style Summertime Pasta Salad

1. Grilled or sautéed shiitake mushrooms (page 167 or 217)
2. Oven-Dried Tomatoes (page 261)
3. A spoonful or two of Simplest Seaweed Salad (page 53)
4. Spicy Korean-Style Pickles (page 91)
5. Individual poached eggs (page 525)
6. Chopped hard-boiled eggs (page 521)
7. Scrambled eggs
8. A handful of bean sprouts
9. Crunchy Crumbled Tempeh (page 512)
10. Thinly sliced or grated daikon or other radish
11. A spoonful or 2 of silken tofu or Deep-Fried Tofu (page 487)
12. Cooked black or white soybeans (½ cup or so per serving)