(Photo by Shoji Kudaka)
Every year when summer rolls around, cold-served pasta appears on menus at many restaurants in Japan. Starting with standard tomato sauce, flavors range from bisque sauce to cod roe sauce and more. Normally, a hot and spicy dish would be my go-to when eating pasta. But during the hot season, I stay cool by cooling down my pasta.
According to Nikkei Style, a website dedicated to lifestyle, the origin of this type of pasta can be traced back to two chefs. One of them is Gualtiero Marchesi, an Italian who served up cold pasta topped with caviar in the 1970s. The other is Japanese chef Hiromi Yamada, who came up with a recipe for a cold tomato pasta. The website argues that the food has ties to Japan either way because Marchesi’s pasta was inspired by Japanese cold soba noodles he encountered during his travels to Japan.
Now a popular seasonal food of summer in Japan, cold-served pasta has also become a part of home cooking. Thanks to websites and social media dedicated to cooking, recipes can be easily accessed.
With restrictions on eating in restaurants still not fully lifted, I decided to cook up some cold pasta at home on a recent hot summer day. The recipe I found on the web was very simple and easy to follow. Plus, the beauty of it was that it involved no heating except for boiling the pasta. Once the pasta is boiled, you chill in ice water.
If the summer is overheating you, cool down with this cold-served pasta.
INGREDIENTS Pasta 80 g Tomato: one normal size Onion: a quarter of one Beefsteak plant: four to five pieces Garlic paste: 2.5 ml Salt: 5 ml Seasoning soy sauce triple strength: 2.5 ml Olive oil: 15 ml Black pepper: a little Cheese: 1 slice or shredded
Recipe 1. Cook pasta in boiling water for one or two minutes longer than usual. While boiling, prepare sauce as indicated below. 2. Dice tomato into small pieces. Chop a quarter of an onion into small pieces and cut beefsteak plant into thin strips. Cut sliced cheese into small pieces. 3. Put tomato, onion, garlic paste, black pepper, salt, seasoning soy sauce, olive oil, in a bowl and mix. Add beefsteak plant and mix more.
4. Once noodles cooked enough, rinse them with water. Drain water from the pasta. Then cool them down by soaking them in ice water.
5. Serve up the pasta on a plate and pour the sauce (the mixture of step 3) on top.
6. Sprinkle sliced cheese on top. *This recipe is based upon information provided by cookpad.com
