The simplest and the most difficult. The web is full of videos, of chefs and housewives who teach them how to make them: everyone has their trick, their own secret. Who adds the Pecorino Toscano; who adds flavor using meat broth; who combines other ingredients such as lemon peel, who makes a broth of pepper, who melts the cheese first.
The real Pasta Cacio e Pepe was turned into the “emptied” form of cheese and creamed by adding cooking water and pepper.
A dish of the Lazio tradition, made with two ingredients, as often happens with many Italian recipes: you do with what there is available.
There are no other ingredients: pasta, cheese and pepper.
A little bit of salt allowed.
The drained and molded pasta was creamed by adding cooking water, grated Pecorino Romano, freshly ground pepper.
The cheese wheel is really hard to find. Then you have to resort to expedients.
Two secrets:
- the water of the pasta must be “white” and not boiling, that is, rich in starch and still hot: the phospholipids of the cheese will create the link between the water, the fat of the cheese and the starch granules;
- the second secret: once the pasta has been drained, it must cool down for a minute before adding the grated cheese: too much heat would form lumps. Alternatively, if you make a cream cheese first, the water with which you are going to melt it must not be boiling: also in this case, it is better to wait a minute before pouring the ladle of water over the cheese.
I have done so.
I put the water to boil, without filling the pot but leaving it halfway.
I put a little salt – less than the usual amount – in the water at the time of boiling.
It is a little more difficult to cook spaghetti in them, but once they are put in the water, just wait less than a minute until they are flexible at the bottom, and then push them gently until they are covered with water. I used thick spaghetti, which cook longer and have time to release more starch. In addition, the long cooking time allows us the other operations … all to be done last.
I crushed the peppercorns in a small mortar.
I toasted the crushed grains, but a little, without burning them. Then I added a ladle of water where the spaghetti are cooking, to make a kind of broth.
I grated the cheese and put some in a large bowl.
burst burst
I took a ladle of cooking water, which at this point is even more “white” due to the starch released by the pasta. I waited a minute with the ladle in hand to let it cool down a bit. I poured the water gradually, stirring with a whisk – but a ladle or a rubber spatula is also fine.
The Pecorino melts. The result is not perfectly smooth: Pecorino is not a “melting” cheese like Fontina, Gruyere or Parmesan. The result at the beginning is always a bit “barzotto” – not perfectly cooked. But later, by stirring insistently, adding more water and more cheese to the bowl along with the pasta, a little magic will happen.
When the pasta has reached the right point – al dente – I lifted it with a colander with the handle and poured it into the pepper broth, continuing to cook. When the pasta absorbed the liquid, I waited a few seconds before pouring it into the bowl with the “initial cream of Pecorino”, because too much heat could make the cheese angry, which would curl up in a corner.
I poured the spaghetti and started to turn, adding cooking water (each time waiting a little for it to lose heat) and more grated Pecorino.
Once plated, another snow of cheese and another grated pepper before serving.
Waiting and speed are the two secrets of Pasta Cacio e Pepe. Once you have a sense of time, the magic happens
Marcella Ansaldo ©