That’s it: I’m officially obsessed with crème fraîche. I forgot about it for a while, and then, I used it in two recipes this week. I like how subtle it is and how it pairs well with almost any other ingredient. I might try a strawberry-crème fraîche-mint recipe soon.

Anyway. For the purposes of this dish, I tossed some soba noodles with the cream and topped it with chopped chives, crumbled egg yolk and sage flowers that I bought on a whim at the farmers’ market last weekend.

I’ve never crumbled an egg yolk before, but it’s easy and highly satisfying. You can reserve the egg whites from the hard boiled egg to eat later.

An important note: The thing that ties this whole dish together is the sea salt. It might seem counterintuitive, but it’s true. After I had tossed everything together, I sprinkled an extra couple pinches of Maldon salt on top and it made all the difference. Let your salt flag fly–you’ll thank me later.

Here’s a good song for soba noodle-making. I heard it last weekend and now it keeps popping up on my playlist.

Soba Noodles with Crème Fraîche and Chives (slightly adapted from 101 Cookbooks)

Ingredients

8 ounces soba noodles, cooked and rinsed in cold water
4 tablespoons crème fraîche
fine grain sea salt
lots of chopped chives
yolks of 4 hard-boiled eggs, crumbled
fresh sage flowers

Directions

Cook the soba noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water.

Shake off any extra water from the soba noodles, place in a mixing bowl and toss gently with the crème fraîche. Taste, and salt if needed.

Serve a tangle of soba noodles and sprinkle with a generous amount of chives, hard-boiled egg yolk, and sage flowers.