Cacio e pepe is an institution in Rome. Spaghetti loaded with Pecorino chese and pepper. Very few ingredients, and easy to make. Or maybe not that easy. Despite the few steps and ingredients, it takes a good and precise piece of work, to obtain the right texture of the sauce. It is a challenge to make the perfect creamy sauce, from cheese and water.
The dish is of ancient origin, where shepherds, or maybe even soldiers, would only need to bring the cheep milk cheese, pepper and spaghetti to get a tasty and nutritious meal.
The dish is not optimal for fresh pasta, because of the boiling pasta process and the fact that you should get an ‘al dente’ texture of the spaghetti. Like the romans like it. however, it is not rare to find cacio e pepe on the many cards in Rome
4 persons
Put the pasta to boil, in salted water. Use a bit less water than usual according to the instruction on the package.
Put at frying pan at medium/low heat, and add around 100ml of the boiling water and add a generous amount of pepper. Let it boil lightly.
When the pasta has boiled for 7 min, drain it and transfer to the pan. (preserve a large cup of the pasta water) Add the pasta to the peppered water on the pan and add some of the preserved water. Continue adding water and mix, until the pasta is boiled al dente on the pan, to your liking.
Turn off the heat of the pan. Add half of the Pecorino in 2-3 batches, mixing in between. The sauce should creamy, not watery.
Serve the cacio e pepe immediately with another dose of pepper and the rest of the pecorino as topping.
