One of our favorite Roman pasta dishes is Cacio e Pepe, which literally means “cheese & pepper“ in Italian. We were big fans of traveler foodie Anthony Bourdain! His TV show No Reservations inspired us to try Cacio e Pepe for our first time during our trip to Rome years ago. We immediately fell in love with this dish and learned to make it at home.
This elegant pasta dish has such simple ingredients as the name suggests BUT it's also amazing that it can be easily botched up. After several tries, we were finally content with the new technique that we’ve learned to perfect this pasta!
This is our Bucatini version adapted from Chef Leonardo Vignoli's recipe.
Ingredients
500g Bucatini pasta ( about 1.1 lb of pasta)
1.25 cups Pecorino Romano, freshly grated
1 tsp Black peppercorn, coarsely grounded
Sea Salt
Instructions
In a pan, add salt to water & bring to boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente.
Meanwhile, toast black pepper in a small pan under medium/low heat. Remove from pan & mix it with pecorino in a large mixing bowl.
When pasta is almost done, use a ladle and add 1 scoop of pasta water to the pecorino & pepper bowl. Mix vigorously to create a paste.
Drain pasta. Toss it into the pecorino paste. Mix quickly with 2 forks until all of the pasta is coated-- Speed is crucial to prevent clumps. (The steam hot pasta melts the cheese).
For a creamier sauce, add more pasta water 1 Tbsp at a time. Transfer pasta to plate. Sprinkle more pecorino & pepper if you like. Enjoy!
Notes:
If you make this recipe, we'd love to see it! Tag us at @NY.Foodie on your stories & posts.
