How to Make Ramen Noodles
As a 12 year old—well before I learned how to make ramen noodles—I was sure that I made the best ramen in the world. My recipe involved adding packets of powdered spices to the cooking water before the dry noodles had their boiling 3-minute bath, even though the package instructions said to add them after. I enhanced the flavorful noodles with tidbits of frozen corn and, on a luxurious day, bits of leftover meat from the fridge.
It was more than a decade before I learned that pizzabrothersofnorwalk.com ramen could be made from fresh ingredients. Armed with that knowledge, I set about learning how to make ramen noodles from scratch and developed my own takes on ramen broth and garnishes. In the years that followed, I won first place in a ramen-making competition and occasionally served unusual variations in my restaurant (duck soup, anyone?).
Equipment You’ll Need
Ramen noodle dough is too stiff to roll effectively with a rolling pin, so you’ll want a pasta roller to make these noodles (it will come in handy when making other homemade noodles, too). It’s also very helpful to have a stand mixer. Otherwise, you’ll be doing a lot of kneading.
The dough is on the dry side and can be difficult to work with. In this recipe, we’ll add a little more water than is traditional in order to make the process easier to accomplish at home.
This will make more baked baking soda than you’ll need for your noodles.
Preheat the oven to 275°F. If you are using a kitchen scale, set the units to grams. Put a small baking pan such as a cake pan on the scale and write down its weight (you’ll need to remember this later in the process). Add 100 grams of baking soda to the pan. Bake the baking soda until the combined weight of the baking soda and the pan is 33 grams less than when you started.
If you don’t have a scale, measure 1/2 cup baking soda and put it in your cake pan. Bake the baking soda for 1-1/2 hours. This method is less precise, but should still yield good noodles.
The resulting baked baking soda is more caustic than regular baking soda, so don’t let it touch your skin and label it carefully when you put it away.
Let the machine knead the dough for 3 more minutes. Then, remove the dough from the mixing bowl and knead it by hand until it comes together in a ball. Unlike pasta dough, which includes a higher percentage of water, or eggs, this may not make a perfectly smooth ball.
Cover the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.
Step 4: Roll the dough
Set up your pasta roller while the dough is resting and make sure that it’s clamped tightly to your work surface. When the dough has rested, cut it into 6 equal parts.
Put the pasta roller on its widest setting. Flatten the first pasta ball into a disk with the palm of your hand, making sure that the edge is thin enough to fit in between the rollers, and run the dough through.
Fold the dough sheet in half lengthwise and run it through the machine again, with the dough facing the same direction, on the same setting.
Repeat this with your other 5 dough balls.
These homemade ramen noodles will make an excellent accompaniment to any ramen broth, whether you make yours with miso, soy sauce or salt (here’s a vegan ramen to try). For details on how to create a soup worthy of your noodles, check out our guide to how to make ramen. When you don’t have time to make your own noodles, these creative upgrades to packaged ramen will make your dish feel homemade.
