Cacio E Pepe
Roman pasta with three ingredients: Pecorino Romano, black pepper, pasta. Looks easy, isn't. The cheese must emulsify into the starchy water without scrambling. Worth practising; the result is the most luxurious cheese-and-pepper sauce you can make.
Overview
Black pepper toasts in a dry pan; pasta cooks; the starchy pasta water plus finely grated Pecorino emulsify into a sauce off the heat. Heat shock scrambles the cheese; the technique is to take the pan off the heat before adding cheese, and toss energetically.
Ingredients
- 200 g spaghetti (or tonnarelli, better: bucatini)
- 100 g pecorino romano (very finely grated, plus extra for serving)
- 2 teaspoons coarsely cracked black peppercorns
- Salt for the pasta water (less than usual; pecorino is salty)
Method
Stage 1 - Pasta water
- Bring 2 litres of water to the boil with a heaped teaspoon of salt (less than for normal pasta; the pecorino brings more).
Stage 2 - Toast the pepper
- While the water heats, place the pepper in a wide heavy pan over medium-low heat.
- Toast for 1-2 minutes, swirling, until fragrant. Take off the heat.
Stage 3 - Cook and reserve water
- Drop the pasta in. Cook 2 minutes shy of al dente.
- Lift out a mug of starchy water (about 200 ml). Drain the pasta but keep more water reserved.
Stage 4 - Build the sauce
- Splash 2-3 tablespoons of pasta water into the pepper pan. Bring to a simmer.
- Add the pasta and toss vigorously over low heat, adding a little more water as needed to coat the strands.
- CRUCIAL: Take the pan OFF the heat. Wait 30 seconds (heat shock scrambles cheese).
- Tip in the grated pecorino and toss with tongs, adding small splashes of pasta water until the cheese melts into a glossy, creamy sauce that clings to the strands.
Stage 5 - Serve
- Plate immediately into warm bowls.
- Top with extra pecorino and a final twist of pepper.
Notes
- Off the heat to add cheese: This is the entire trick. Cheese added over heat clumps and goes stringy; cheese added off heat with hot pasta water emulsifies into a sauce.
- Finely grate the pecorino: Coarse grates clump. Use a microplane or the finest holes of a box grater.
- Pasta water is the binder: Without enough starch in the water, no emulsion. Don't drain the pasta down the sink first; reserve generously.
Storage
- Doesn't keep. Eat immediately.
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