Inspired by the noodle-crazed cuisines of Asia, Italy, and the American melting pot, these recipes dish up high-impact, slurpable flavour and minimal fuss.

Dig into comfort noodles like Really Savory Sunday Sauce with Tagliatelle and French Onion Mac and Cheese. Quick weeknight noodles:  Flash-Fried Rib Eye with Black Bean Sauce and Crispy Chow Mein and Let’s Stay in Tonight Spicy Sesame Chili Oil Noodles.

Plus how to upgrade instant ramen, recipes for making delicious pasta from scratch, plus the one and only lasagna bracket competition.

That Noodle Life: Soulful, Savory, Spicy, Slurpy is available at Amazon.com and Indigo.ca.  

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Super Creamy Chicken Miso Ramen

This recipe—which combines a Tokyo-style creamy chicken broth and a more northern Japanese-style miso-mushroom tare—embodies everything we love about ramen in one bowl. It’s a richly flavoured, super creamy, thick-bodied soup with a bit of the sea from the dashi and huge hits of umami from the miso, mushrooms, and chicken. It might feel excessive to buy both red and white miso, but it’s the combination of the two that really makes this ramen shine. This recipe calls for just broth and noodles. If you want the full-on ramen experience, you’ll need to prepare the chashu and ramen egg beforehand.

Serves 4

2 pounds chicken bones or 1 pound chicken wings

1 medium onion, halved

2 tablespoons (¼ stick) unsalted butter

¼ cup white miso

¼ cup red miso

2 tablespoons cooking sake

2 tablespoons mirin

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms

2 cups dashi (see page 236)

Salt

24 ounces fresh ramen noodles

4 teaspoons peeled, grated fresh ginger (about a 1-inch piece)

4 cloves garlic, peeled and pressed or minced

½ medium red onion, peeled and finely minced

Finely sliced green onions

Chicken chashu (see page 217) and/or ramen egg (see page 217), for serving

 

Toppings

Marinated vegetables (we like to use bamboo shoots, baby corn, and wood ear mushrooms for this dish; see page 215)

Korean chili threads 

Nori sheets

1. Bring the chicken bones, onion, and 2 quarts of water to a boil in a large stockpot over high heat. Note the level of the water in the pot—you want to end up with this much liquid when the broth is done. Add an additional 2 quarts of water and keep it at a rolling boil for 2 hours, adding water as needed whenever the liquid drops below the original waterline.
2. Make the miso tare: Combine the butter, white and red miso, sake, mirin, vinegar, and mushrooms in a large saucepan and whisk over medium heat until the butter melts and the alcohol burns off, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in the dashi until smooth, then set aside.
3. When the chicken broth is done, remove it from the heat, strain, and discard the bones and onion. Pour the broth back into the pot. Add the miso tare to the broth and adjust the seasoning with salt to taste. Return the broth to very low heat and keep at a bare simmer.
4. Cook the noodles according to the package directions. Drain well.
5. To assemble: Ladle 2 cups of piping-hot ramen broth into each of four warmed bowls. Divide the noodles, ginger, garlic, red onion, and green onions among the bowls. Add the chicken chashu and/or ramen egg, and serve immediately.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Workman Publishing.