Sesame Noodles

These noodles are one of my favorite things to bring to a picnic. They’re a little salty, a little sweet, and only get better once they sit in the fridge overnight.

They’re super simple to make, and will keep for about week in the fridge. They have an excellent balance of salt (from soy sauce), sweetness (from sugar) and heat (from fresh ginger and Sriracha chili sauce).

Fresh green onions, black sesame seeds, and chili flakes add texture and visual appeal.

Make these noodles with your favorite brand of spaghetti or fetuccini. At The Mouse House, we’re partial to Barilla Plus, which has a fabulous and true pasta taste—and is packed with protein, fiber, and Omega-3s.

Make these noodles the night before you want to serve them, as they need to sit overnight to absorb the sauce.

Sesame Noodles

1 lb. spaghetti or linguine
7 cloves garlic, mashed
1 large nob of ginger, peeled and grated
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1/3 cup toasted sesame oil
2 tsp. Sriracha chili sauce
6 green onions, diced
sesame seeds (black or regular), for garnish
chili flakes, for garnish

Serves 6-8

Cook and cool the noodles

Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove.

When your water is boiling, toss in a little kosher salt and add your pasta to the pot.

Cook pasta until it’s al dente. For Barilla Plus spaghetti, this took about 11 minutes or so.

When it’s done, drain the pasta.

Then run cold water over it to cool the noodles and rinse off excess starch.

When they’re cool, let the noodles sit in the colander to drain while you mix up the sauce.

Make the sesame noodle sauce

Mince up the garlic and put it in a medium-sized bowl.

Grab your ginger. Use as big a piece as you like, depending on how much ginger flavor you want.

Cut the peel completely off it. Grate it up. (A microplane set over your mixing bowl makes this easy.)

Add the sugar, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sriracha chili sauce, and sesame oil to the bowl.

Whisk the ingredients together well.

It should look about like this:

Pour the mixture into a medium-sized pot.

Set it on the stove over high heat, whisking occasionally to help the sugar dissolve.

Take the pot off the heat when the mixture just comes up to a boil. Whisk it again well. You want to heat it up just long enough to dissolve the sugar. (This means you’ll still have plenty of fresh garlic and ginger flavor.) Tip the pot a little and look at the sauce. You shouldn’t see any sugar granules. Give it a taste to be sure.

Toss the noodles with the dressing

Put your cold noodles in a large mixing bowl.

Pour the hot dressing over the noodles.

With a wooden spoon or tongs, gently toss the noodles to coat them in the sauce.

Once they’re well coated, your noodles will still be sitting in a puddle of sauce. That’s just fine. They’ll absorb it almost completely as they sit in the fridge overnight.

Chop your green onions into rings.

Toss them in with the noodles.

Mix to combine well.

Let the noodles cool to room temperature. Then transfer them to a gallon-size zip-top bag. Pour in all the sauce that’s left in your bowl. Squeeze the air out of the bag and set it in the fridge overnight. By the next day, they will have absorbed all that sauce.

Sesame Noodles: Serve & enjoy

When you’re ready to serve, garnish with sesame seeds and chili flakes.

Serve and enjoy!