Food Gold: Cacio y Pepe
Posted on Aug 24th, 2010 in Food Gold by Elliot Aronow
After checking out the Anthony Bourdain in Rome version of No Reservations last week I caught a glimpse of homeboy eating Cacio y Pepe, a beautiful bowl of pasta with cheese and pepper, and decided this was absolutely going to be the next recipe I shared with y’all for Food Gold.
Now, due to the stark simplicity of the recipe you need to be sure you use only top notch ingredients (I’m looking at you dudes who use the old pepper you’ve had in your cupboard for two years) so spend a few extra bux and reap the rewards.This one is a stone cold classic and a great lesson in subtly swagged out home cooking.
Cacio y Pepe (Pasta w Cheese and Pepper)
Ingredients
3/4 lb pasta like spaghetti or linguine (plus two reserved cups of starchy pasta water)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons decent but not amazing olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons FRESHLY GROUND PEPPER. You must run the peppercorns through a mill to get the proper spiciness here.
1 tablespoon great quality Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon great quality Pecorino cheese (or just use another tbs of Parm)
Salt/Pepper to taste
Recipe
1. Boil pasta in VERY salty (like the ocean) water until it is just sub al-dente. I think of it as approx 85% cooked. Just taste often and you will get a sense for when it’s ready.
2. A minute or two after throwing pasta in boiling water, start your sauce. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil under low/medium heat until butter is foamy. After that, add your FRESHLY ground pepper and turn the heat down to very low.
3. Drain your pasta and reserve approx 1 cup of starchy pasta water. I found the easiest way to do this is to ladle out a few big scoops into a bowl and then drain, rather than putting a bowl under your strainer in the sink, which is admittedly not a great look and potentially very painful.
4. Carefully ladle approx 1 1/2 cup water into the sauce and whisk vigorously. You are creating an emulsion here which will later make the sauce creamy and smooth. This is an important step.
5. After adding water add pasta, stir in cheeses in a few batches, check for seasoning and toss well. You are looking for a creamy, spicy quality to the dish. Drink some wine.
6. Leave uncovered for approx 6 minutes. Add a little water if the mixture looks too dry.
7. Serve with a nice vinegary salad and be excited because you just made something delicious!
Fork The World,
4 Responses to Food Gold: Cacio y Pepe
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Also, I’d like to add that if you want to be iconoclastic and funk w the textbook version of this, you can add some lemon or goat cheese. It’s a different dish so don’t call it Cacio y Pepe. Just enjoy it cause it’s going to be good.
Thank you for posting! I made this tonight using your recipe. I also made the parmesean bowl that the restaurant served the pasta in, but it really changed the flavor of the dish and made it too strong. I used one cup of parmesean and fried it in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, until lightly brown, then laid it over a bowl (inverted) to obtain the rounded crevice for the pasta. Next time I’ll try less parmesean for the bowl to lighten the flavor.
Used your recipe tonight, and it was fabulous! Also, thank you to the commenter with the tip on the parm bowls. Meal was a joy, lots of hands in the kitchen, wonderful vibe. One teen queen made caprese, other sacrificed nearly all feeling in her wrist grinding pepper. Lordy, kitchen is a wreck but recipe was a triumph. Two things – the texture of the pasta was critical – next time I will err on side of caution for al dente; and the note about whisking and explanation of why the emulsion is important was key to making it work. THANKS!!!! A big hit and new staple!!!
About the parm bowls – these take practice! No oil required, but quick movements and asbestos (or disposable gloved) hands. A few years ago, Giada D. featured a caterer on her show who made mini parm shells filler with mac & cheese for hors d’oeuvres. I immediately saw the potential for a teen munchie food hit. I made the tiny parm cups over mini cupcake tins. I went one step further and made mini pasta (acini di pepe) for the filling. Start with minis, skip the oil and they’ll taste better. Since Barilla now makes piccolini pastas, i’ll probable do the parm shells over regular sized cupcake tins and use piccolinis. For a cheddar version, I’ve used aged Mimolette for the cups – parm texture, cheddar taste.