Cacio e Pepe

Recipe

Ingredients

200g Spaghetti
100g Pecorino Romano
1/2 tbsp Whole black peppercorn
2 cup Reserve pasta water
Olive oil

Instructions

Bring salted water to a boil in a pot large enough for your spaghetti. Do not add oil to water! We want the sauce to stick to the pasta. Typically you want the water for pasta to be salty like the ocean; this will help flavor the pasta. However for this dish with a large amount of pecorino Romano cheese, it will be salty enough already. So just like in life, you can quit being so salty. When you have a nice rolling boil add the pasta.

Meanwhile, toast the black peppercorn in a dry skillet over medium heat. Toast until it becomes fragrant and place on a paper towel. This next step you can make as cathartic as you’d like: we get to crush the peppercorn. Use a kitchen mallet, bottom of a pot or pan, pepper grinder, whatever you see fit. I like mine more course and use the bottom of a pot to crush them.

Once your pasta is al dente, remove the pasta from the water and save 1/2 cup of pasta water. Add 1/4 cup pasta water and peppercorn to a skillet and let simmer for about 1 minute. Take some time to breathe and get ready to shake all your feelings out on the pan. Add in the drained pasta and little by little add the pecorino Romano cheese. Shake the pan vigorously and you tongs to agitate the pasta. We need to add energy to the mixture to create a nice creamy emulsion so let go of all the negative energy. Add more pasta water as needed. We are looking for a glossy sauce that coats the pasta.

Now it’s time to plate and enjoy your creation. You can drizzle a little oliver oil on top. I like to add some extra cracked peppercorn on top and then cover it with more cheese. If you have some long kitchen tweezers you can wrap some pasta up on them and carefully plate it to make it look neater. Life is messy so don’t worry about making it neat. We care about flavor more than looks here.