Rick Stein's summer rolls. Photograph: Felicity Cloake
The only bulky element of this delicate dish – although rice vermicelli aren't exactly pappardelle, they are surprisingly difficult to get absolutely right (again, see pad thai). The ideal texture, as far as I can tell, is yielding but still slightly chewy. Many recipes dodge the issue by pointing you towards "packet instructions", but Stein suggests dunking them in boiling water for two minutes, while Luu goes for 5–10 minutes, "until soft". I find Luu's a bit too squidgy and Stein's a little al dente – about four minutes seems ideal. All the recipes are careful to remind you to rinse the noodles, to stop them cooking any further, and then to drain them thoroughly before use, or you'll end up with soggy summer rolls, which would be a sad thing indeed. Gourmet, which I'm beginning to suspect of wilful non-conformity, instead uses rice sticks of the flat, wide kind normally seen in dishes such as pad thai, soaked for 10 minutes and then tossed with lime juice before use. Again, I don't think the filling needs any extra liquid or indeed flavour – that's what the dipping sauce is for – and the noodles themselves are too bulky for easy rolling.