Ryuji's "Cold Salt Pasta with Cured Ham": A Chilled, Salt-Seasoned Pasta Made with Onion Sauce and Ajinomoto

Ryuji starts by listing the advantages of using pasta for cold noodles. The first is price. Hand-stretched somen is expensive and can cost surprisingly more than you'd expect. The pasta they use is a premium-type 1.5mm pasta, which works out to about 100 yen per serving. Somen is often received as a midsummer gift, but if you're going to serve it again and again, Ryuji's view is that something cheaper is better. The second advantage is that, unlike udon, it isn't frozen, so it doesn't take up space.

Ryuji explains that this pasta is also different from peperoncino. Fresh lemon is preferable, but store-bought lemon juice like Pokka Lemon is perfectly fine.

For the shoot, they made two servings, including one for the staff, but the quantities are given per serving. The onion is 50g per serving. You can use a Bunbun Chopper, but Ryuji is better with a knife, so they mince it by hand. This time the onion is so important that it could be called an "onion sauce," and Ryuji said the minced onion "brings out great flavor."

When the staff asked whether raw onion would be too sharp, Ryuji said it wouldn't. Once the sauce is made and left to sit, the salt draws out the onion's pungency. If you're worried, you can soak it in water, but it's probably fine. Ryuji recommended using onion as a sauce like this as a great approach even for people who don't like the sharpness.

As for the cured ham, Ryuji says the Japanese-made packaged kind sold at supermarkets is better suited for cooking. Ryuji jokingly calls it "fake cured ham" and says they prefer it for cooking.

According to Ryuji, expensive cured hams like prosciutto and jamón serrano are made in their home countries with thorough aging, and their production method is completely different from that of Japanese cured ham. Japanese cured ham is made by soaking in a brine and also contains umami seasoning. The originals, on the other hand, are quite salty and develop an off-odor when they oxidize.

As an example, Ryuji described an experience at a Spanish restaurant. They ordered a high-grade, premium cured ham, and it smelled bad. Ryuji suspects it wasn't the smell of the ham itself, but that because it was expensive and rarely ordered, it had developed an oxidized smell. That's why, Ryuji says, cured ham tastes better bought as a block and sliced each time rather than pre-sliced. If it's cut from a large block in the shop, the surface may be oxidized, but the freshly cut face is fresh.

For home cooking, packaged Japanese-made cured ham like the kind sold at Aeon is plenty, and easy to eat. Ryuji also suggested that some people might find the Japanese-made kind tastier than the originals. You don't need to chop the ham with a knife; just tear it by hand, about 30–40g. Ryuji cautions that while it isn't as salty as regular cured ham, it still has a fair amount of saltiness.

To the bowl with the onion and cured ham, add the following seasonings.

• Lemon juice: 1 tsp
• Salt: 1/4 tsp
• Soy sauce: 1 tsp
• Ajinomoto: 6 shakes
• Black pepper: generously
• Olive oil: 1 1/2 tbsp
• Grated garlic: 3g

The seasoning is aimed at pairing well with alcohol. For the shoot, they decided to use Pokka Lemon in one of the two servings to compare it with fresh lemon. Since it's only 1 tsp of soy sauce, it doesn't make it taste like soy sauce; its role is to round out the flavor. The saltiness stands out more in order to match the cured ham.

Ryuji grinds the black pepper somewhat coarsely in their electric mill. An ordinary hand-cranked mill apparently won't get it this coarse, and coarser pepper is better. If you don't have one, sprinkling coarsely ground pepper is plenty.

Ryuji says J-Oil Mills olive oil is fine. With regular pasta, they often drizzle part of the oil at the end, but this time it all goes in at the start without dividing it. Since the sauce isn't cooked, the oil's flavor stays fresh. For the grated garlic, Ryuji started to say "about 5g" and then corrected it to 3g being plenty. If using garlic powder, about 6 shakes. Since this isn't a garlic pasta, they don't add much.

Once everything is mixed, chill it in the fridge. It was also mentioned that you can use ponzu instead of lemon juice.

What Ryuji talked about at greatest length in this episode was how to use Ajinomoto. In Italy, this kind of umami is supplied by cheese, but Parmigiano-Reggiano is hard for an ordinary household to buy. Ryuji explains that if you add Ajinomoto in place of the cheese, it tastes as good as if you'd added cheese.

The reason for choosing Ajinomoto over kombu dashi or chicken stock is that it has no aroma. Because it adds no aroma, the flavors of the ingredients — the cured ham, onion and olive oil — come through as the stars. According to Ryuji, almost no one — whether YouTubers, recipe developers or chefs — cooks in a way that takes advantage of this "no aroma" property, and they're probably the only one. Ryuji also said that some people criticize using Ajinomoto, but they don't understand how it's really meant to be used.

The conversation also touched on someone called "Morita-san." According to Ryuji, this person is an architect, and because their cooking is built on logic, they can use umami seasoning skillfully. Conversely, "genius" types who cook by feel rather than logic don't use Ajinomoto. Ryuji added that it might be more accurate to say they can't use it. Ryuji's view is that you can't master Ajinomoto without studying it, and that once you learn how to use it, there's nothing more convenient.

Bring a generous amount of water to a boil for the pasta. Since this is an olive oil–based pasta, if you want to add other ingredients, mixing in things like asparagus or lettuce is also delicious. If using asparagus, Ryuji suggests boiling it together with the noodles.

While the water was coming to a boil, Ryuji made a side dish with nameko mushrooms and eggs. Since pasta alone lacks both protein and vegetables, it's positioned as a snack that easily makes up for that.

Beat 2 eggs, season lightly with salt and pepper, and cook them in oil over high heat. Push them together with a silicone spoon as they cook, and when they're half-set, turn off the heat and remove them. In the same pan, add the nameko straight from the bag and stir-fry lightly. The staff said they'd never stir-fried nameko, but Ryuji recommended it as delicious and said adding ham or bacon would probably work too. Nameko can be eaten as soon as they're heated through.

Add 1/3 tsp chicken stock powder and 2 tbsp water. The key, Ryuji says, is adding a little liquid. Ryuji explained that stir-frying doesn't get rid of the nameko's sliminess, and adding water actually brings the sliminess back. Return the eggs, mix for just a moment, and if it's bland, season lightly with salt and pepper and it's done. It works both as a snack with drinks and as a side with rice.

Make the pasta water saltier than usual. Normally it's about 1%, but this time it's 1.5%: 15g of salt per 1L of water. Since rinsing in cold water removes salt, the water is made a little salty to account for that.

Thinner noodles, around 1.5mm or 1.4mm, are best. Capellini is also delicious, but it ends up tasting like somen. Ryuji said that the flavor people perceive changes quite a lot depending on texture.

The cooking time is 6 1/2 to 7 minutes rather than the package's 6 minutes. Because chilling in cold water tightens the noodles, they're boiled longer for cold dishes. Here Ryuji noted that cold pasta isn't really part of Italian culture. Chilling noodles at all is a Japanese thing, and something like the chilled carbonara they made before doesn't exist in Italy. Carbonara isn't something you chill, Ryuji says. On the other hand, Japanese people love cold noodles, like hiyashi chuka, and Ryuji added that while Italy does have cold pasta, there isn't much of it.

On noodle thickness, Ryuji said thin is better because thick noodles tighten up too firmly, but for people who like the chewy texture of the thick noodles that have been popular lately, a cold dish with thick noodles is delicious too. In that case, though, the sauce has to be made quite strong. Since this one has a light, oil-based sauce, no such adjustment is needed. If you prefer it a little firmer, about 6 1/2 minutes is fine.

While waiting for the noodles, prepare a bowl with plenty of ice water. Ryuji emphasized that in summer it's tastier to properly use ice water. They also did the dishes at this point. The reason: viewers sometimes say Ryuji doesn't wash up, which they resent, so they wanted to show they do it properly. Chilling the plates is even better. Ryuji said you don't have to go that far, but for the shoot the plates were chilled in the freezer.

Once boiled, cool the noodles under running water and then firm them up in ice water. Since this was two servings, they also used running water, but for one serving, if your hands aren't burning, you should definitely put them in ice water. "Cold pasta is better the colder it is" is Ryuji's own preference.

The important thing is to squeeze out the water thoroughly. Leftover water dilutes the flavor. On Instagram some people dry the noodles with paper towels, and Ryuji used to do that too. But using paper towels every time is a hassle, they said. Mix the chilled sauce and noodles well, and when plating, twirl the noodles a bit as you serve them for a nicer look. Finish with black pepper and dried parsley and it's done.

For the tasting, they opened a bottle of wine that, for some reason, gets sent to them regularly. Ryuji hasn't been told what's in it either, so they don't really know what wine it is.

The nametama, eaten first, was well received as simple and just right as a light snack. Ryuji said it isn't too strongly flavored, so it goes well with wine too.

Of the cold pasta, Ryuji said it was "ridiculously good" and that they now understood the point of making it a salt pasta. The raw onion wasn't sharp; rather, it was a nice accent, and the cured ham came through well. One staff member said no one would complain even if a place in Omotesando charged 2,000 yen for it. As for the comparison between fresh lemon and Pokka Lemon, nobody remembered which was which, and Ryuji laughed, saying, "Probably both are delicious."

Because of the cured ham, the saltiness is a little strong, so if it bothers you, you can cut the salt down to about 1/4 to 1/5 tsp. But Ryuji also said that since you sweat in summer, this level is fine for them.

Finally, they compared it with a finishing drizzle of olive oil. Ryuji had thought it wouldn't make a difference since the dish is cold, but said it actually did. If you're having it with wine, you should definitely do it. Ryuji explained that J-Oil Mills olive oil has no strong character, and since the onion aroma comes through strongly in this dish, you don't need a strongly aromatic olive oil. Ryuji laughed that it had turned into something like a sponsored segment, but stressed that it wasn't sponsored.

The closing topic was nameko again. According to Ryuji, the only nameko recipe they've put out so far is a single video made on the spot with the two members of Reiwa Roman. Ryuji said maybe they should do a recipe with nameko as the star, and the shoot moved on to the next one.