Lasagne is a collated noodle dish.

My perfect lasagne would be straightforward al denté noodles framed with luscious sauce, just as lightning, seen against extravagantly swirling deep blue and grey clouds, is both dramatic and simple.

This recipe is not that, but it is luscious, subtle, to remember, to repeat.

As Christmas 2012 dinner, it is especially memorable because we shared it with an unexpected and charming guest.

My recent casual but frequent abuse use of umeboshi, the sour salty pickled plums loved in Japan, set in motion a series of meals involving kimchi and fresh Korean soba noodles. Little Tess went to the Galleria to pick up some more umeboshi for me and saw that they were selling the same brand of fresh soba she loved in California. Like any good shopper who doesn’t stick to her list she fell for a container of kimchi which she’d been craving.

This is a very nutty pesto—just the right sauce for an original wafu spaghetti,
or other culturally crazed noodles, Japanese-style.
You could call this recipe a mistake, because I filled a 2 cup measure ¾ full for ¾ cup of almonds…
How did that work out?
Oh nuts!

The last time I visited my favorite Ann Arbor Japanese grocery a display of pretty green and white packages of noodles caught my attention. The packages showed colorful vegetables and curly green noodles. “Deliciously Chewy!” proclaimed the top line, and near the bottom, “Ready in 2-3 minutes.” The noodles are made with leaves of the moroheiya plant, making them a “great source of fibers & vitamin A.” Unlike most instant noodles, these are not fried nor do they have added MSG.

Mr. Tess and Little Tess were home for lunch, and hungry. Usually lunch is a matter of foraging in the fridge, pantry, and breadbox but I was curious about these noodles. I added a lovely tomato, a half package of soft tofu, wakame, and sliced green onions to the soup.

Mr. Tess worked out of town several weeks this summer. Cooking for one: white grape juice, directly from the bottle. Tuna and mayo on macaroni. Thin spaghetti with butter and pepper. Vanilla ice cream in front of the freezer. What do you eat when no one is looking?
Here is a “cooking for one” meal which had some healthy green things to supplement the essentially white starch and carbohydrates I was over consuming.

Cool foods in summer, simply prepared, and served casually, make it possible for us to survive this extraordinary heat.

Cooking once for two meals, planned leftovers, makes the time spent in the kitchen efficient. Sandwiches come to mind as a second chance meal. And noodles are quick to prepare and easily transform a meat dish into a lovely soup or salad sort of meal very different from the original.

Lunch is something to look forward to at work, a convivial gathering to tell stories, jokes, and a bit of light gossip, as well as a time to eat. My workplace is dangerously near to Zingerman’s excellent but expensive food, so I try to bring something from home, usually leftovers. There are times when dinner was so delicious that there is nothing left for lunch, so I gave these noodles a try hoping they would be a pantry staple for a quick to fix packable zap-able meal.

My new love is oysters: Until recently, I never ate them (except for canned and smoked), but if I could I would now seek out my new paramour in cities, towns, villages… on coasts around the world, then the world would be (so to speak) my oyster.

Mine is a case of oyster tastes on a tilapia budget…
The ugly, delectable, addictive little beasts!

Miso soup is simple, a blank palette, which can be transformed with the addition of extra ingredients. When choosing the gu for your miso, think about contrasting colors, whether ingredients float or sink, strong flavors and bland; think about seasonal ingredients; most important: please your palate!