-
1
Combine the flour, salt, and water in a bowl. Work the mixture into a firm, cohesive dough. It will be stiffer than pasta dough; this is correct. Shape into a ball, wrap, and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. The dough is ready when it yields slightly under thumb pressure without springing back completely.
-
2
On a lightly floured surface, roll the rested dough to a uniform 4 mm thickness. Cut into ribbons 2 cm wide. Do not dry the strips and do not pre-cook them. Set aside on a floured board.
-
3
Bring the dashi to a steady simmer in a heavy pot — ideally individual iron pots (tetsunabekake). Add the gobo and daikon first, as they require the longest cooking. Simmer for 5 minutes until the vegetables begin to soften at the edges.
-
4
This is where the dish lives or dies. Add the raw noodle strips and the kabocha wedges simultaneously to the simmering broth. Do not pre-cook the noodles; their raw starch is the thickening agent. Maintain a steady simmer — not a rolling boil, which will break the noodles — for 15 to 20 minutes. The noodles are done when they are fully swollen, tender through to the centre with no raw dough remaining, and the kabocha is collapsing at its edges, releasing starch visibly into the broth.
-
5
Add the mushrooms and abura-age strips in the final 5 minutes of cooking. They require only brief heat.
-
6
Dissolve the miso into a ladleful of hot broth and stir it back into the pot. Add in stages, tasting between additions — the noodle starch and vegetable liquids will have concentrated the broth. The finished soup should be dense and savoury, the broth visibly thickened and opaque with kabocha starch. Adjust miso only at this final stage.
-
7
Serve in the cooking pot, still simmering at the table. The aroma should be miso-rich and starchy, with the sweetness of kabocha underneath. Toasted sesame oil is offered at the table and added by each diner; it is never introduced during cooking.