Baking Soda Is All You Need To Transform Your Spaghetti Into Ramen

Spaghetti and ramen are both technically noodles, but the two aren't actually as similar as you might think. Of course there's the obvious fact that spaghetti is often served with sauce, while ramen is largely enjoyed in broth, but beyond their individual cooking applications, spaghetti and ramen are also made up of different ingredients. While both contain flour, spaghetti calls for durum wheat flour, while ramen uses a blend of strong and semi-strong flour that is high in protein. Ramen also contains more eggs than spaghetti, but the main difference is that the dough is made with kansui.

Often sold under two other names — lye water and alkaline salt — kansui is a Japanese ingredient made up of 80% potassium carbonate and 20% sodium bicarbonate. Because of its alkalinity, kansui causes ramen to change in texture and color. That's why ramen is more elastic and yellow than spaghetti is. It also has a distinct taste, which is why if you ate ramen with marinara sauce it wouldn't really taste like pasta.

Because the difference between spaghetti and ramen lies in the dough, there's no way to fully transform one into the other after it's already in noodle form. You can however get an almost perfect ramen substitute if you cook your spaghetti with baking soda. Rather than use the baking soda straight out of the box, you'll first want to bake it in the oven at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour. The heat will turn the powder from sodium bicarbonate into sodium carbonate, making it more alkaline. This step is important because the alkalinity of kansui is exactly what sets ramen apart from spaghetti.

After baking your baking soda, all you need to do is add it to your pasta water. As the spaghetti boils in the baking soda water, the alkalinity will give the pasta a more ramen-like texture and color. Just make sure to cook it for two to three minutes longer than you would spaghetti. Once you strain it, you'll have noodles that can be used in place of ramen.

You might think that the more baking soda you add to spaghetti, the more its texture will resemble ramen, but unfortunately that's not the case. If you attempt to add more baking soda than you need, it'll significantly change the taste of the noodles, but not in a pleasant way. Instead of tasting the broth, your taste buds will be overpowered by the flavor of soap or ammonia. To prevent this from happening, stick to a ratio of 1 tablespoon of baking soda for every liter of water and serving of spaghetti.

If you're planning to put your ramen in a soup that has a ton of spice or a bold flavor, you can safely use up to 1 tablespoon of baking soda without detecting an aftertaste. But if you're still worried about the noodles turning bitter, you can always give the ramen a good rinse after you're done cooking it.