CHUKASUIMEN RAMEN NOODLES

If you make Italian pasta at home, and have a pasta machine, you might try making these basic ramen noodles. Otherwise, high-quality storebought noodles will be your best bet. 1 cup baking soda for making the kansui water 1 teaspoon salt

4 cups bread flour

3/4 cup kansui water, as needed Cornstarch for dusting

To make the kansui water

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Spread the baking soda in an even layer on a sheet pan and bake for 1 hour and cool. Bring 1 quart of water to a boil and add ⅓ cup of the baked baking soda. Allow to cool and top off with water to equal 1 quart before making the noodles.

To make the noodles

Dissolve the salt in the kansui water. Put the flour in a large bowl and add the salted water, little by little, mixing with your fingers to make a dough (you may not need to use all the water). Knead the dough until it becomes yellowish — the color change is due to the reaction of the kansui water and the flour.

Form the dough into 6 balls and run them, one at a time, through a pasta machine twice at the thickest setting, dusting with cornstarch each time. Keep running through the pasta machine until you reach the second thinnest setting and have a 1-foot-long sheet. Switch to the cutting blade to make the noodles. Divide the noodles into 6 bundles and dust with cornstarch.

Allow to rest in a cool dry place for one day before cooking.

Makes 6 servings.

Per serving: 335 calories (percent of calories from fat, 4), 11 grams protein, 67 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 2 grams fat (trace saturated fat), no cholesterol, 845 milligrams sodium.

Adapted from “Ramen at Home” by Brian MacDuckston (Rockridge Press, $19.99).

YAKEL CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS BY MIA Get out your pasta machine to make Chukasuimen Ramen Noodles.