Carbonara Made with Hoto: Ryuji's Recipe Reworked for Thick Fresh Noodles

According to Ryuji, a post saying "cream pasta made with hoto is delicious" had spread widely on X (formerly Twitter). The post didn't include a specific recipe. So Ryuji figured that combining it with a carbonara recipe they had made before might produce a pretty great pasta.

The noodles used were Shimadaya's pre-boiled hoto, a two-serving pack weighing 340 g. Ryuji says other brands should work fine too. When asked where to find them in the store, Ryuji answers that they are sold in the boiled udon section.

Ryuji explains that hoto are noodles that are traditionally simmered with other ingredients until they become soft and mushy, yet they are so thick that they still don't lose their texture. After naming pappardelle, tagliolini, and fettuccine as wide Italian pastas, Ryuji says hoto are much thicker than any of them. Since hoto is a type of udon, it is made without kansui (alkaline water) and isn't yellow, but in a broad sense it could arguably be called pasta, according to Ryuji.

The advantage Ryuji emphasizes is the short cooking time. Boiling pasta this thick should take about 13 minutes, but pre-boiled hoto is ready to eat in 3 minutes. Ryuji says they usually use thinner pasta, 1.4 mm or 1.5 mm. The reason is an impatient personality that can't stand waiting through long boiling times, and in that respect too, hoto is well suited for when you're hungry, Ryuji says.

The ingredients for two servings are hoto, block bacon, garlic, eggs, cheddar cheese, olive oil, salt, umami seasoning, and black pepper. The test batch didn't include garlic. But because hoto has such a strong presence, Ryuji decided it tastes better with it and added it this time. If you like spicy food, you can also add chili pepper.

Ryuji repeatedly stresses that you must use block bacon. With thin-sliced bacon, "it really gets overpowered," Ryuji says, and cuts the bacon into thick batons so it can hold its own against the noodles. The amount is a generous 80–100 g, and Ryuji asks viewers to add it while "thinking of it as a bit of a luxury."

Two eggs are used. Those who want it richer can add one more, but Ryuji thinks two is enough because the bacon has plenty of impact. When beating them, Ryuji explains, moving the chopsticks horizontally, cutting against the egg, breaks up the whites well. Just stirring in circles won't break them up. However, Ryuji adds that since everything gets mixed later, you don't need to beat them until the whites have completely disappeared.

For the cheese, sliced cheddar is used. Each slice is 15 g, and this time six slices, about 90 g, were used. Ryuji says it's also delicious with more cheese. Because the cheese doesn't melt easily, the film is peeled off in advance. Ryuji ties this to the point that preparing everything you can ahead of time is the key to not failing in cooking.

According to Ryuji, authentic carbonara is generally considered best made with grated cheese or good cheese such as Parmigiano-Reggiano. Even so, Ryuji says their recent research has led to the conclusion that sliced cheese can sometimes even be tastier. Ryuji has recently been hooked on cheddar and finds it the tastiest of the cheeses sold in stores. Strictly speaking, it isn't 100% cheddar but around 70–80%, similar to the cheese used on cheeseburgers, Ryuji also explains. If you don't have cheddar, pizza cheese or melting cheese will do, but the richness of cheddar goes especially well with wide noodles, Ryuji says.

Another reason is price. As Ryuji explains, a canister of grated cheese costs about 400–500 yen, and making this amount of carbonara uses more than half of it, so it costs 200–300 yen per meal. A pack of sliced cheese costs around 250 yen, so using half of it keeps the cheese cost to about 150 yen even for two servings. Parmigiano-Reggiano is even more expensive. It's economical and delicious too, Ryuji argues.

On black pepper, Ryuji introduces an electric mill they sell and recommends grinding it coarse, at the largest setting. Pre-ground black pepper sold in stores is fine and not freshly ground, so it doesn't give off much aroma. Ryuji explains the background: most mills on the market also grind fine, and there aren't many electric mills that can grind coarsely, so Ryuji made one. Fine grinds suit delicate soups, but this time there's a lot of cheese and the noodles are strong, so if it isn't coarsely ground it gets overpowered, Ryuji says. As an alternative if you don't have a mill, Ryuji suggests crushing whole peppercorns with a knife to make them coarse.

Before cracking the eggs, Ryuji talks about hygiene. Eggshells may carry bacteria, so those who are concerned should wash them, Ryuji says. Ryuji personally just gives them a light wipe, and says the reason they've never gotten sick is a strong stomach. Ryuji then explains that cautions about expiration dates and bacteria are meant out of consideration for people with weaker immune systems.

This leads to a discussion of DMs from viewers. About two people had written in saying that the hamburger steaks their husband or wife makes are undercooked, and they get yelled at when they point it out, so they asked Ryuji to address it on the channel. Ryuji responds that even they would get sick from it, so undercooked food is not OK. In particular, it must not be served to small children or people with weak immune systems. Hamburger steaks are easy to undercook, and chicken thighs also tend to end up undercooked when cooked as a whole piece, so Ryuji asks viewers to check that they aren't squishy and always cook them through. Ryuji draws a distinction: with beef, a rare steak is fine as long as the surface is seared, but pork and chicken are not, and a hamburger steak made from mixed ground meat contains pork, so it's not OK if the inside is red. Ryuji also says the people eating should point it out too.

As for how the eggs are handled this time, Ryuji frames it as not very good hygienically but not something to worry much about either—the risk just isn't zero, and if you started worrying about that, you couldn't do anything.

Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the bacon over fairly low heat. Asked whether oil is necessary when the bacon releases its own fat, Ryuji answers that it is. Carbonara lacks richness without a certain amount of oil, Ryuji says. The cheese also releases oil, but that alone isn't enough, in Ryuji's view.

Store-bought block bacon spatters when cooked. Ryuji explains this is because it isn't actually smoked but soaked in liquid smoke, so it has moisture inside. For those who don't like the spattering, Ryuji recommends a splatter screen, available at stores like Nitori.

As for how far to cook it, Ryuji initially says just until the surface is a little crispy. In practice, Ryuji cooks it until it turns a color with solid browning, saying it doesn't look appetizing without that color. The garlic goes in afterward, because it would burn if added at the same time as the bacon. After turning off the heat once, Ryuji, wanting a punch of garlic so it won't be overpowered by the hoto, cooks it over low heat until it sizzles and becomes fragrant. Once it takes on color, it's removed from the heat before it burns. Ryuji says that after making it once, they became convinced that garlic is an absolute must.

In between steps, Ryuji also comments on how this differs from the authentic version. Ryuji says purists who insist it isn't carbonara if you use bacon will just have to leave, and states clearly that this is not authentic carbonara. Some Italian chefs add garlic, and just like in Japan, there are all kinds of cooks in Italy, so it wouldn't be strange for an Italian chef to make it with hoto, Ryuji says. There is no right answer in cooking, and the authentic version isn't absolutely the tastiest. Drawing on experience eating pasta in Italy, Ryuji also says they think Japanese pasta is tastier, limiting that to say it was true at least 20 years ago.

Add the hoto to boiling water. No salt is added. According to Ryuji, Japanese udon, hoto, and somen have salt kneaded into the noodles, so the boiling water doesn't need salt; salting the water is pretty much only for Italian pasta, which has no salt in the pasta itself. Ryuji also says noodles this thick don't exist in Italy.

The suggested boiling time is 3 minutes, but in practice they are pulled out at around 2 minutes 30 seconds. If you only want to make one serving, simply halve all the quantities.

Using tongs, transfer the boiled hoto directly into the frying pan, which has been taken off the heat and allowed to cool. Draining in a colander is a hassle, so they go straight in. Ryuji says another advantage is that the thick noodles are easy to scoop up.

Put the pan over low heat, tear the sliced cheese and add it, then add about one ladle of the cooking water and melt it in. Ryuji explains that if you don't add the cheese first, the eggs will set. Once the cheese turns creamy, turn off the heat, add the beaten eggs, and mix with a rubber spatula. After that, mix while applying a little heat; Ryuji answers that a heat setting of about 1 is fine. Add 2 pinches of salt and about 8 shakes of umami seasoning.

The goal is soft, half-set eggs, so mix while lifting the pan slightly off the heat to keep them from turning into scrambled eggs. Turn off the heat once the egg coats everything. Cooking it too much loses the silky texture, Ryuji says.

In the actual result, some of the egg clumped a little. Ryuji says that "since it's hoto carbonara, it's totally OK," and that it's actually delicious even with this much setting. The important thing is to absolutely not leave behind any of the remaining egg mixture, and it's not OK for it to turn dry and crumbly, Ryuji explains. Ryuji also says that since it's an unorthodox dish to begin with, it doesn't have to be done perfectly, and shows that the finished dish is quite silky.

Once plated, finish with black pepper. For the thumbnail shot, Ryuji keeps it to an amount that looks good, then adds a huge amount after the shot is done.

After tasting it, Ryuji says it's five times better than the last time they made it, and rates it among their own recipes as "definitely top 3 of all time." Ryuji also says it could work as a dedicated hoto carbonara restaurant. Staff members who were present react too, saying it's chewy, they understand why coarse pepper was used, it doesn't have to be fettuccine, and hoto might actually be better.

Ryuji analyzes how the flavor is built this way: the umami of the cheese is reinforced with salt and umami seasoning, and on top of that the bacon, black pepper, and garlic flavor all come through. Even so, the strongest element is the hoto, and the flavor gets completely taken over by it. That's why, without this much cheese, thick bacon, garlic, and plenty of black pepper, everything would be overpowered—that is Ryuji's conclusion. Ryuji reiterates that with thin-sliced bacon, there might be no point in adding it.

On ease of preparation, it was mentioned that fettuccine can be tricky to cook just right, but with hoto, 2 minutes 30 seconds to 3 minutes is foolproof. On the other hand, the remaining point of caution is the heat for the eggs. Ryuji says frankly that it might be better to cook them until they clump slightly, but that it's a difficult balance.

Finally, Ryuji looks back and says that among the dishes they made this year, the chicken mizutaki was also good, and that this dish "went all out." Ryuji then wraps up by encouraging viewers to try making it with hoto from their local supermarket, saying it will turn out fine as long as they follow the recipe.