Cacio e pepe is a typical Lazio's pasta dish that needs 3 ingredients and it's very quick to make. You can think
of it as the Gricia without guanciale. The sauce is basically a cream of hot pecorino cheese and pepper (as the
name suggests). It can be tricky at first but with a few tricks you can really make a creamy and tasty meal in
just 20 minutes. Stay focused because this recipe needs the right timing!
The basic idea is to make a cheese cream using grated pecorino cheese and pasta cooking water. The water, full
of starch, will make the pecorino nice and creamy.
Let's start!
Ingredients
Quantities listed here are for 1 person, just multiply everything for
the number of people you're going to cook for.
80 g of spaghetti
50 g of pecorino romano cheese
0.5 spoons of black pepper
Steps
Boil some water for the pasta. Meanwhile grate the pecorino romano and set it aside.
When the water boils add salt and spaghetti. Meanwhile, toast the pepper in a large pan.
Once it is well toasted, blend it with a ladle of pasta cooking water and mix.
3 minutes before the end of cooking, drain the spaghetti directly into the pan with the pepper and cook
it again, adding a little of the cooking water at a time, until the pasta is cooked through and releases its
starch.
Meanwhile, let's prepare the cream: in a bowl, combine the grated pecorino and add a little of cooking
water at a time, stirring with a whisk until you obtain a thick, compact cream.
Once spaghetti is cooked, remove the pan from the heat, add the pecorino cream and stir vigorously. If
necessary, add a little more cooking water until the pasta is nice and creamy.
