Ramen!

Adapted from Bon Appetite and a collection of other online sources.

Realizing that we are in Italy and our ingredients we have available are a bit limited.   We had to be a bit creative and had to in some cases make the ingredients ourselves.  Which in turn was much fun and also we now have a better understanding for the ingredients them selves.

We are going to make this is three different parts:

First will be the stock

Ingredients:

1lb Chicken wings, back, or neck

½ lb pork spareribs

2 bunches of scallions, coarsely chopped

2 carrots, peeled, cut into pieces

1 head of garlic split, don’t peel of the skins

1 piece of dried kombu or another type of seaweed.

1 ½ lb pork loin

olive oil

sea salt and pepper

Tare:

¼ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce

1Tbs. dry white wine ex. Vermentino

½ Tbs. white vermouth

For the Tare combine all ingredients together set aside.

One day ahead: Season pork loin with salt and pepper.  Roll up and tie with kitchen twine at 2” intervals.  (this will help to keep the meat intact while cooking)

Heat oil in a large heavy pot (preferably the one you will make the broth in) over medium high heat cook pork loin, turning, until brown all over, about 10-12 minutes.  Add the chicken, spareribs, scallions, carrots, garlic, and seaweed.   Fill the pot with water then add the Tare.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, skimming the surface occasionally and add more water as liquid reduces, until pork shoulder is tender and stock has reduced to about 2 quarts, about 3 – 4 hours.

Remove pork shoulder from stock and let cool.  Wrap tightly in plastic and chill until ready to use.  (Chilling pork will make meat easier to slice.)  Strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve into another large pot or a large bowl.  Discard the solids (including ribs and chicken).  Cover and chill.

Part two:

Ramen Noodles

I love living with an Italian because no one knows pasta like the Italians.  And well today we brought back an ancient pasta making tradition for these noodles.  Rolled and cut by hand, nothing could be more rewarding and more beautiful than hand made pasta.

For the dough:

1 ½ cup all purpose flour

2 eggs

salt

water if needed

on the kitchen table or a wooden surface place the flour in the shape of a volcano.  In the middle add the eggs and some salt.  Then with your fingers mix up the eggs into the flour until a dough forms.  If need be add some water to make sure the dough has a nice smooth texture.

Let rest for about 20 minutes.

Then on a clean work surface flour the surface then stretch the dough working with a rolling pin until it is about 1/8 inch thick.  Covering both side of the dough with additional flour so it does not stick when you have to cut it.

Once you have reached the thickness you desire roll up the dough on the rolling pin then remove the rolling pin from the center leaving the dough in its rolled form.

Take the knife and cut from the edge 2 mm thick noodles.  Then toss them in some flour so they don’t stick together.

Part three where everything comes together:

Garnishes

2 fresh eggs

3 scallions, thinly sliced

Soft boil your eggs for about 7 minutes then immediately place in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

Heat up about 4 cups of the broth.  From this you will add the scallions and also the pork to heat up.  Bring to a boil then add your noodles and let cook for about 4 minutes.

Then you are ready to plate, as you like.  I placed the noodles in a bowl first then placed the pork on top of the bed of noodles, then added the broth.

Enjoy!