Hoto (Yamanashi Flat Noodles in Miso with Pumpkin)

Ingredients

• [Noodles] All-purpose flour (or half cake flour and half bread flour) 300 g
• [Noodles] Lukewarm water 140–150 ml
• Dusting flour (potato starch or wheat flour), as needed
• Kabocha pumpkin 200 g
• Potato 1
• Daikon radish 4 cm
• Carrot 1/2
• Napa cabbage 2 leaves
• Fresh shiitake mushrooms 4
• Japanese leek (negi) 1
• Aburaage (fried tofu pouch) 1 sheet
• Thinly sliced pork pieces (optional) 100 g
• Niboshi (dried sardines) 30 g
• Water 1.8 L
• Miso 120 g

Steps

1. [Making the noodles] Put the flour in a bowl and mix by hand while adding the lukewarm water a little at a time. When it turns crumbly, gather it into a ball and knead for about 5 minutes until smooth. Do not add salt. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and rest for at least 30 minutes.
2. [Stock] Remove the heads and guts from the niboshi, soak them in the measured water for about 30 minutes, then set over medium heat. When it boils, simmer on low for 5 minutes and remove the niboshi.
3. Seed the pumpkin and cut into 3 cm cubes; cut the potato into bite-size pieces, the daikon and carrot into 5 mm quarter-rounds, the cabbage into rough pieces, the shiitake into thin slices and the leek diagonally. Pour boiling water over the aburaage and cut it into strips.
4. Add the slower-cooking ingredients first, such as daikon, carrot, potato, shiitake and pork, to the stock and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Roll the rested dough out on a floured surface to 2–3 mm thick, dust it generously with flour, fold it back and forth like a folding screen and cut into 1.5 cm wide strips.
6. Add the pumpkin, cabbage and aburaage to the pot and dissolve in half the miso. Lightly shake off the excess flour from the noodles and add them directly, separating them (no pre-boiling). Stir from the bottom now and then so they don't stick.
7. Simmer over medium-low heat for 10–15 minutes until the noodles turn translucent and soft and the pumpkin breaks down a little, thickening the broth; then dissolve in the remaining miso and adjust the seasoning.
8. Add the leek, bring back to a boil, turn off the heat, cover and let it steam for 2–3 minutes before serving.

Origin and history

Hoto is Yamanashi Prefecture's signature regional dish: flat noodles made from kneaded wheat flour, simmered in a miso broth with pumpkin and plenty of vegetables. So familiar is it to locals that there is even a saying, “The tasty thing is pumpkin hoto,” and in the Kyonan area in the south of the prefecture it is also called noshiire or noshikomi.

Because much of the mountainous land was unsuited to rice growing, it has long been eaten as a staple in place of rice. Making noodles at home was an everyday task, and there was a time when being able to make good hoto was considered a skill a young woman should master before marriage.

Since the noodles contain no salt, there is no need to boil them first to remove saltiness, and they pair easily with vegetables and meat for a nourishing meal. The name is said to come from hakutaku, a wheat-flour dish eaten by Heian-period nobles at ceremonies and other occasions.