Cacio e Pepe

Cacio e Pepe

From Laura in The Kitchen

The Cacio e pepe pasta, an incredible dish of the ancient Roman Sheppards’ dating back to the 5 ^th century. This remains a simple dish for the everyday people that is now quite famous in Italian cuisine. We are pairing this pasta with our Pinot Noir that gives a complimenting spice when paired together. The recipe below is by Laura Vitale of the Laura in the Kitchen Youtube channel. She began cooking in the kitchen of her Grandmother in Naples, Italy and brought her love of creating “food that feeds the soul” to the United States.

Ingredients

• 8oz of Spaghetti
• 3oz of Finely Shredded Pecorino (see notes below)
• 1-1/2 tsp of Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Salt

Directions

• Fill a pot with water, add a generous pinch of salt (not too much) and bring to a boil, add the pasta and cook 2 minutes shy of package instructions.

• In a large skillet (I prefer a non-stick heavy duty skillet here) add the ground black pepper, toast for about a minute, meanwhile reserve a couple of cups of starchy cooking water and set aside while you drain your pasta.

• Add 1/2 cup of the starchy water to the bowl of shredded cheese, stir and set aside.

• Add an additional 1/2 cup of the starchy water to the skillet with the pepper, then add the spaghetti (make sure the heat is on low) and start adding your cheese mixture, constantly stirring until Emulsified and adding any additional cooking water if needed. Continue the process until your sauce comes together.

Notes

This dish is one you need to practice, so many things can create a clumpy split mess so I hope these tips help avoid that. Make sure your cheese is grated finely using a Microplane and make sure it’s at room temperature. Keep an eye on the heat level, you might need to remove the pan completely from the burner to avoid overheating the cheese. Avoid using a thin metal pan, it gets way too hot and heats unevenly, most of the time I’ve tried making this dish in anything besides my heavy duty all clad non-stick skillet, it turned out a mess. Don’t over-salt your water, I know it looks like I added a lot of salt in the video but keep in mind I don’t use fine table salt, I use coarse kosher salt so it’s technically triple the size of a regular fine salt. This is a dish that needs to be eaten HOT, right off the stove and traditionally it should be served on warm plates to keep the sauce from setting and hardening the second it hits a cold surface. Use the best (imported if possible) pecorino Romano you can find, if you use a cheaper version or pre-shredded I can guarantee you it will clump in a second! I also use a bit more cheese but it’s easier to start with 3oz and once you have the technique down you can add another ounce. I hope these tips help, for such a simple dish it’s the technique that really matters and it does take some trial and error.

Enjoy and cheers!