Adding baking soda to your boiling water can transform regular dry pasta into ramen noodles. [Above Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-LÃ³pez. Alt Other: Photographs Daniel]. Gritzer pop: Quiz'you re dying for some ramen but'aren t anywhere near a place that servesâit and, no the-99 cent instant stuff'isn t going to cut. itut the kansui or baking soda is usually worked into the ramen noodle dough itself. The suggestion here was that you could just add baking soda to the cooking water and turn any old strand of spaghetti into something that seemed ramen-like. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a very exciting idea.