Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Cacio e Pepe

Cacio e pepe

 

Prepare time: 20 min
Cook: 15 min
Ready in: 20 min

Pair this delicious pasta with a nice Italian red wine.

Ingredients

  • For 2 people
    100/120 grams (a person) of fresh tonnarelli or dried spaghetti
  • Crushed black pepper or a mix or crushed peppers
  • 100 grams pecorino or a mix of  60 grams pecorino and 40 grams parmigiano (less salty)
  • Pasta water

Preparation
Bring a pan to boil for your pasta. Then start grating the pecorino cheese or a mix of pecorino and parmesan. The parmesan is less salty and gives a nice balance if you mix it with the pecorino. Make sure you grate the cheese finely, so it will melt easily.

Then crush the pepper with a pounder or grinder. Check if the water is boiling and add just a tiny bit of salt, careful because the pecorino is very salty by itself.

Add the pasta to the boiling water, if you choose a fresh pasta, just cook it for 2/3/ minutes. If it’s a dried pasta, cook them for 8 minutes. In the meantime take a saucepan (preferably deep) put on the fire and let the pepper roast, until you can smell the roasted pepper.

Take a ladle and add  pasta water into the pan with pepper. Check if the pasta is almost al dente and add the pasta to your pepper/water mixture. Cook for another 2/3 minutes and stir until perfectly al dente and just a little layer of water left. Then take the pan of the heat, toss the pan to lower the temperature.

Then start adding the cheese, while mixing or tossing. Mix fast, so all the cheese will melt perfectly. If the sauce is to thick you add some more pasta water, if the sauce is to watery, you add more cheese. It’s all about finding the perfect balance of the creamy combination between the cheese/water/pepper and pasta! Buon appetito!

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