Together with carbonara and amatriciana, cacio e pepe is certainly one of Rome’s important pasta dishes, served at eating places all around the Italian capital. Like lots of the Everlasting Metropolis’s greatest dishes, a very good cacio e pepe recipe is about simplicity. Traditional variations name for simply pasta, salted water, freshly floor pepper, and Pecorino Romano, a Roman sheep’s milk cheese. Ours tosses a little bit of Grana Padano or Parmesan into the combo for a extra rounded cheese taste that melds heat, nuttiness, and sharpness. When mixed correctly, all the weather come collectively like sorcery right into a lusciously tacky dish with a creamy sauce.
Making certain this emulsified Italian pasta sauce is freed from clumps when working the cheese into the starchy water can take apply. The standard of every ingredient is vital: Use good butter and the greatest pasta you may afford and guarantee your peppercorns are recent. Traditional cacio e pepe makes use of tonnarelli, an extended pasta noodle that’s barely thicker than spaghetti, however any lengthy or quick pasta works (assume spaghetti, bucatini, rigatoni, or fettuccine). However a very powerful element is that cheese: Don’t use pre-grated cheeses, which frequently embody components that forestall clumping within the bag however will trigger clumping in your sauce. Use a field grater, not a high quality Microplane, for coarsely grated cheese shreds that simply disperse and soften into the sauce with out seizing up.
Cacio e pepe is greatest served instantly, so you’ll want to set your desk earlier than you begin cooking. The dish wants little accompaniment, however a vivid inexperienced salad is a pleasant addition to stability out the richness. And we might by no means say no to garlic bread.
Want a vegan model? Do that one.
