The first time I had hiyashi somen they were a revelation. It was a staggeringly hot day, and a Japanese friend was cooking dinner. When I found out we were having noodles, I was a little dismayed—I was more in the mood for a salad than for pasta. Then she brought out (what I now know as) hiyashi somen, in little bowls on top of ice with a cool dipping sauce to accompany them—perfect food for a blistering day. You can top the somen with poached and chilled shrimp or room-temperature grilled shiitakes, but it’s plenty good plain, as here. If you want to significantly speed up an already fast dish, skip the dried shrimp and sugar (or substitute homemade sugar syrup). For information on dried shrimp, see page 185.

　　

Ingredients

makes 6 servings

　　2 cups Dashi, preferably homemade (page 162)

　　1/2 cup soy sauce

　　2 tablespoons mirin

　　2 tablespoons sugar

　　1 tablespoon dried shrimp, optional

　　Salt to taste

　　One 300-gram package (3 bundles) somen noodles

　　2 scallions, trimmed and minced

　　Wasabi, optional

　　

Step 1

Combine the dashi with the soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and dried shrimp if you’re using them in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, just until the sugar is dissolved, then strain the dipping sauce into another container sitting on a bowl of ice to cool (you want it to be between ice cold and room temperature).

　　

Step 2

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Drop in the somen and cook for 2 to 4 minutes, until tender, then rinse them in a colander under cold running water.

　　

Step 3

Serve each guest a small bowl of noodles twisted into a little nest on top of a couple of ice cubes and a small bowl with 1/2 cup of the dipping sauce scattered with the minced scallions on the side. Pass a little dish of wasabi, if desired, to stir into the dipping sauce.

　　The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman. © 2005 by Mark Bittman. Published by Broadway Books. All Rights Reserved.MARK BITTMAN is the author of the blockbuster The Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.