Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Cacio e Pepe

"Cacio e Pepe" means "cheese and pepper”. Cacio e Pepe, is probably one of the most common pasta dishes in Italy (especially in Lazio, the region of Rome). It is deceptively simple, and only has 4 ingredients. Manga!

Ingredients:

Bucatini pasta (looks like hollow spaghetti tubes)
Pecorino Romano cheese, grated. (some recipes also use Fontina, Parmigiano Reggiano, etc.)
Olive oil and/or unsalted butter
Fresh, coarse- ground black pepper

Directions:
Boil pasta until barely “al dente”. While pasta is cooking, lightly toast in a pan a goodly amount of fresh black pepper - it should just begin to smell wonderful, so don’t burn it!

Add some olive oil and/or unsalted butter to the pepper, and when the pasta water has boiled a bit, add some of that starchy water too. Keep warm. When pasta is barely “al dente”, reserve about 1 cup of the hot cooking water, and drain the pasta.

Toss pasta in with the pepper/oil mixture, and then add the grated cheese and toss some more. As the cheese melts, add some of the reserved pasta water to keep the mixture creamy, and to cook the pasta a bit more. Serve on a warm plate with additional fresh pepper for garnish. Yum Yum! 

No comments:

Post a Comment