The Noodle Soup Problem: How to Achieve Ruwei with Spaghetti

Spaghetti has a noodle soup problem. You could have the best soup base in the world, but if you opt for that bag of spaghetti in the back of your cupboard, maybe it’ll be okay, but there’ll always be something a little off. Like that it doesn’t quite come together, that it feels almost like two separate things in the same bowl? In short, it’s just not very ruwei.

Ruwei is a word that we don’t really seem to have in English for whatever reason. The characters literally mean ‘enter’ and flavor’, and it refers to the quality of flavor-absorbtiveness. A good example might be something like a chicken parm sandwich – you deep fry not for crispy-purposes, but that the flavor of the tomato sauce can really enter that breading. Ruwei is why braised root vegetables are the best part of braises; why it's often better to finish your pasta in the sauce; and in Chinese food, it's a big reason why we basically always marinate before stir-frying.

I think this is why spaghetti often isn't very good? In a lot of Asian soups. Because within the greater noodle universe, spaghetti's one of the firmest, dryest noodles you can get. I mean like... egg-only, low moisture, durum wheat... sort akin to Cantonese Wonton noodles, the stuff’s basically designed from the ground up to be hearty as hell. But unlike Cantonese Wonton noodles, they're also pretty thick, so that it can sustain longer cooking times.

In Jiangzhe, they actually have a specific type of noodle that's used for weimian – they are fresh noodles that are usually thicker so that it can sustain longer cooking times. So in this context, pasta, or I guess spaghetti, is actually pretty good for this application. But of course, you can use whatever Chinese or Asian noodle that you want, but if they are thinner, remember to cut the cooking time slightly.

Achieving Ruwei with Spaghetti

So, how can we achieve ruwei with spaghetti? It starts by making a soup base. Nothing crazy, pot of boiling water, 100g of dried spaghetti, and cook that until it just starts to reach al dente, which for this bag on this stove was about 5 minutes for us. Then strain and give it a good rinse, again, not just to shock but also avoid clouding the soup.

Once your soup base is ready, you can bring it up to a boil, then toss in your now par-cooked spaghetti. Once that’s back up to a boil, swap your flame down to medium low and just let that braise. If you want it to keep a bit of bite, braise it for about 4-5 minutes... or if you're cool with softer and more ruwei, 8-10.

Finally, add some finishing touches to your soup. For us today, we’re tossing in ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp MSG, 1 tsp of sugar, together with a 1 ½ tbsp of soy sauce. Quick stir, heat off, soup base ready... and for us, we're transferring to a serving pot mostly for YouTube thumbnail purposes, but definitely feel free to dish minimize and keep this all in one.

Cooking the Spaghetti Noodle Soup

To cook the spaghetti noodle soup, you'll need to follow these steps:

1. Cook the spaghetti: Bring a pot of boiling water to a boil, then add 100g of dried spaghetti. Cook until it just starts to reach al dente, which for this bag on this stove was about 5 minutes.

2. Strain and rinse: Once your spaghetti is cooked, strain it and give it a good rinse to remove excess starch.

3. Heat up the soup base: In a separate pot, heat up the soup base by adding ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp MSG, 1 tsp of sugar, together with a 1 ½ tbsp of soy sauce.

4. Add the spaghetti: Once your soup base is hot, add it to the serving pot and toss in the cooked spaghetti.

5. Braise: Bring the mixture back up to a boil, then swap your flame down to medium low and let it braise for about 4-5 minutes... or if you're cool with softer and more ruwei, 8-10.

The Result

The result of cooking this spaghetti noodle soup is a delicious and flavorful dish that achieves ruwei. The spaghetti cooks quickly in the hot broth, absorbing all the flavors and becoming tender and soft. The soup base is rich and savory, made with soy sauce, MSG, and sugar. When you combine the two, it creates a harmonious balance of flavors that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Note: Please check the recipe link for more details on how to make this dish.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enSpaghetti has a noodle soup problem. You could have the best soup base in the world,  but if you opt for that bag of spaghetti in the back of your cupboard, maybe it’ll be okay  but there’ll always be something a little off. Like that it doesn’t quite come together, that  it feels almost like… two separate things in the same bowl? In short, it’s just not very… ruwei.Now ruwei is a word that we don’t really seem to have in English  for whatever reason. The characters literally mean ‘enter’ ‘flavor’, and it refers to the quality of  flavor-absorbtiveness. A good example might be something like a chicken parm sandwich – you  deep fry not for crispy-purposes, but that the flavor of the tomato sauce can really enter  that breading. Ruwei is why braised root vegetables are the best part of braises;  why its often better to finish your pasta in the sauce; and in Chinese food,  it a big reason why we basically always marinate before stir-frying.And I think this is why spaghetti often isn’t very… good? In a lot of Asian soups. Because  within the greater noodle universe, spaghetti’s one of the firmest, dryest noodles you can get.  I mean like… egg-only, low moisture, durum wheat… sort akin to Cantonese Wonton noodles,  the stuff’s basically designed from the ground up to be hearty as hell. But unlike Cantonese Wonton  noodles, they’re also pretty thick, so… in a soup the flavor entrance not exactly… ruwei.But luckily I think we might’ve just stumbled upon a solution. You see, browsing our increasingly  problematically-sized collection of old Chinese cookbooks, in this 1989 Yangzhou one there’s a  dish called weimian or braised noodles. Now, this dish isn’t exactly unknown or anything  but you don’t really see around too too much anymore,  and the noodle cooking technique is this ever so slight twist. Basically,  it uses a firmer noodle, partially boils it to what’s more or less al dente by any other name,  but unlike pasta then shocks with cool water to stop the cooking and rinse off some of the starch,  and finally boils the noodle til cooked of inside the soup. And with this technique?  The flavor - enters. So while today we’ll just be covering this old school dish, definitely  do keep this technique in mind for whenever you’ve just gotta reach for that spaghetti. So then, let’s get started at first here with said soup. So we’ll be using a base of  ten grams of dried shrimp here, and soaking that with twenty grams of Shaoxing wine and  setting that aside. Next, grab about 30g worth of scallions, cut them into about inch long sections,  separating out the whites and greens… and honestly? That’s it for the soup prep.To make it then, just swirl in a tablespoon half of lard to a wok or pot, and fry those  scallion whites over a medium-low flame. Once they’re starting to get a bit golden brown,  then add in the greens. Continue to slowly fry those until the greens deepen in color and ever  so slightly crispen up, then just remove solely the greens – but no need to be too too obsessive.Then, to the remaining whites, add in the soaked shrimp together with the wine and swap your flame  up a touch to medium. Fry that until the wine’s basically reduced away and the oil’s gotten clear,  about three minutes, then hit it with two cups of hot, boiled water. Now, at this point, in the interest of cultural fidelity and also not pissing off any Jiangzhe  people out there, we should probably note that in Yangzhou the dominant way you see weimian  is served baitang – that is with a, white, soy sauce-less soup – but today we did go hongtang –  that is, red soup, soy sauce included… basically just because that’s the way we personally like  it. Further, the very most classic braised noodle is probably this dish – which uses a  fish stock and shredded fish, which we’ll link a couple recipes for in the pinned comment below.So then for us today, we’ll toss in ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp MSG,  1 tsp of sugar, together with a 1 ½ tbsp of soy sauce. Quick stir, heat off, soup base ready…  and for us, we’re transfering to a serving pot mostly for YouTube thumbnail purposes,  but definitely feel free to dish minimize and keep this all in one.So then.. soup base in hand, now we can handle our noodles. Nothing crazy, pot of boiling water,  100g of dried spaghetti, and cook that until it just starts to reach al dente,  which for this bag on this stove was about 5 minutes for us. Then strain  and give it a good rinse, again, not just to shock but also avoid clouding the soup.Then just… bring your soup base up to a boil, then toss in your now par-cooked spaghetti.  Once that’s back up to a boil, swap your flame down to medium low and just let that braise. If  you want it to keep a bit of bite, braise it for about 4-5 minutes… or if you’re cool with softer  and more ruwei, 8-10. Then, just toss back on the crispy scallion, plus a couple of fresh  ones for the sake of good looking… and with that, your spaghetti noodle soup is done.So! In Jiangzhe, they actually have a specific type of noodle that’s used for weimian – they  are fresh noodles that are usually thicker so that it can sustain longer cooking times.  So in this context, pasta, or I guess spaghetti, is actually pretty good for  this application. But of course, you can use whatever Chinese or Asian noodle that you want,  but if they are thinner, remember to cut the cooking time slightly.So right! As always, recipe’s in the description box, thank you to everyone  that’s supporting us on Patreon… and of course, subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos!\n"