Where the sesame sauce in the recipe on page 532 makes for a rich, hearty dish, this one is elegant and light. In Japan—where it gets plenty hot in the summer—cold soba noodles, served with a dipping sauce, are a common snack or light meal. Soba are brown noodles, made from wheat and buckwheat, and the sauce is based on dashi, the omnipresent Japanese stock. (You can also serve somen, thin wheat noodles, cold; cook them for a little less time, but also until tender.) Dashi is close to essential here, though you can use chicken stock in a pinch. But dashi is so easy to make (and so good) that if you try it once you’ll become devoted to it.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 4 small servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Meanwhile, combine the dashi, soy sauce, and mirin; taste and add a little more soy sauce if it’s not strong-flavored enough.
Step 2
Cook the noodles until tender but not mushy, just as you would Italian pasta. Drain, quickly rinse under cold running water until cold, and drain well again. Serve the noodles with the garnishes, with the sauce on the side for dipping (or spooning over).
