There are three ingredients in cacio e pepe and somehow it's still the dish that breaks people. The secret isn't a recipe — it's patience and pasta water. That cloudy, starchy water is your sauce; treat it like gold.
Toast your pepper until it blooms and smokes slightly — you want it to bite. Don't rush the emulsion. Never, ever reach for the cream.
Suggested accompaniments from Vol. II: bitter greens salad with lemon vinaigrette, grilled ciabatta rubbed with garlic. Soundtrack: Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra.
Chapter: Italian Dinner Party · Cuisine: Italian · Volume: Vol. II — Italian Dinner Party
Ingredients
- 1 lb tonnarelli or spaghetti
- 2 tbsp black peppercorns — coarsely cracked in a mortar or pan
- 3 oz Pecorino Romano — finely grated, plus more for serving
- 2 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano — finely grated
- Kosher salt — for pasta water (less than you think; Pecorino is salty)
- 1 cup pasta cooking water — reserved before draining
Method
- Boil pasta in lightly salted water. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil — Pecorino is intensely salty; undersalt the water. Cook pasta until 2 minutes shy of al dente. Reserve 1 full cup of starchy pasta water before draining.
- Toast the cracked pepper dry. While pasta cooks, toast cracked pepper in a large, wide skillet over medium heat — dry, no oil — until it smokes lightly and becomes fragrant, about 2 minutes. You want to smell it wake up.
- Bloom the pepper into pasta water. Add ½ cup pasta water to the pepper in the skillet and reduce by half over medium heat, about 1 minute. This blooms the pepper into the liquid and gives you a base for the emulsion.
- Toss pasta in the pan with starchy water. Add drained pasta to the skillet, toss constantly over medium-low heat. Add pasta water in small splashes to keep things loose and steaming — this is where the starch does the work.
- Off heat, rain in the cheese. Remove the pan from heat. Add both grated cheeses in a steady rain while tossing vigorously. The residual heat and starch will pull everything into a glossy, creamy sauce without any cream. Add more pasta water by the tablespoon if it seizes up.
- Plate and serve at once. Plate immediately in warm bowls. Shower with additional Pecorino and a few more cracks of fresh pepper. Serve at once — cacio e pepe waits for no one.
Chef's Note: The cheese must go in off the heat. If the pan is too hot when you add it, the proteins seize and you get clumps, not silk. The sweet spot is a pan that's steaming but no longer sizzling — learn that temperature and you own this dish.
If your sauce breaks: Don't panic. Add a splash of cool pasta water (not hot) and whisk hard off the heat. The cool water resets the emulsion. Nine times out of ten, it comes back together.
Cook with intention. Feel and taste your way through it. Keep one clog in the kitchen. Always.
— Brian W. Bonanno