Here's Why David Chang Wants You To Cook Instant Ramen In Cheese Water
There's nothing traditional about David Chang's cacio e pepe. It could be said, perhaps, that there's nothing traditional about David Chang – full stop — being best known for fusing cultural foods (he even has a Netflix docu-series about it). The culinary entrepreneur is a zany, weird, accomplished chef from Virginia who playfully blends together Asian cuisine with the nostalgic comforts of other gastronomic traditions. See: Momofuku's ramen broth shrimp and grits. See: the Fuku+ fried chicken sandwich. See: instant ramen cooked in cheese water.
Is instant ramen in cheese water going to appear on Chang's menus? It's unlikely (but with him, never impossible). You can very easily imagine, though, that this dish was a late-night, post-kitchen-shift-turned-night-out-turned-hungry-rummage-through-the-cabinets-of-his-home-kitchen-to-satisfy-a-craving kind of invention. It's the kind of departure from tradition born of mashed-together cooking techniques that his creative brain is known for. And it's exactly what you should do with the packet of instant ramen that's been sitting in the back of your cupboards for who knows how long.
A nontraditional take on an Italian classic
Cacio e pepe — literally cheese and pepper — is one of the traditional pastas of Rome. It is said to have originated via Roman shepherds meandering the Italian countryside with their herds. As semi-nomadic herders without refrigeration, they had to carry with them the makings of a hearty meal that wouldn't go bad quickly: cheese, dried pasta, and pepper.
These days, most cacio e pepe includes butter and/or olive oil to create an even creamier, more luscious sauce as a kind of "secret ingredient." The pasta is boiled to a firm al dente, releasing the starches necessary to create structure in the sauce, and some pasta water is reserved for this purpose when the pasta is drained. The noodles are then tossed into a pan with melted butter, enrobed in finely grated Pecorino Romano, and generously seasoned with freshly cracked black pepper. The pasta water is added to the pan and, through the magic of starch, fat, and emulsification, a classic cacio e pepe is made.
David Chang's instant ramen cacio e pepe, however, is not a classic Italian pasta dish. In a YouTube video, he maintains that he is "not trying to piss off Italians," but it is "not in any way, shape, or form Italian approved." And although Marcella Hazan is guaranteed to be rolling in her grave, she might be intrigued by one thing: cheese water.
Let's talk about cheese water
The main innovation behind instant ramen is turning fully-cooked noodles into a shelf-stable brick by flash frying. According to the World Instant Noodles Association, the frying process dehydrates the noodles from 30% to 40% hydration to as low as 2% hydration. This means two things: very little starch will be released in the cooking process, but the noodles will soak up a lot of flavor from whatever they're cooked in. In creating a "cheese broth" by melting finely grated cheese into water with butter, David Chang is infusing a salty, savory, nutty flavor all the way through the noodles.
This also solves another problem: needing starchy pasta water. With instant ramen, the cooking has already been done — you're just finishing the job by rehydrating and softening the noodles. There's not enough starch for the sauce in a small ladleful of pasta water. Chang solves this by employing a one-pot pasta method, where the noodles are cooked in a smaller amount of liquid, concentrating the starch to thicken the sauce while it's cooking.
One critical adjustment Chang makes is discarding some of the water. Without doing this, he would have had a noodle soup or, in determination to cook down the sauce all the way, noodle mush. The important lesson here is to only use just enough cheese water.
The result is a comforting, saucy tangle of cacio e pepe. It might not be traditional, but it's quick, easy, and it looks delicious.