Unknown in France, this pasta recipe is a must for Italian mammas.
Italian cuisine is well known for its recipes for more attractive pasta from each other, often prepared with few ingredients but highlighted with quality. Among the most emblematic recipes, we know all the famous Spaghetti Alla Carbonara or the Bolognese lasagna. But have you ever heard of this star of Italian tables, particularly appreciated for its simplicity and intense taste?
It is a spaghetti recipe that comes straight from Rome, the capital, and which has the particularity of containing only three ingredients. If its preparation is relatively simple and requires only a few minutes, some technical tips are nevertheless to be known for a perfect success.
Let’s go for the Pasta recipe “Cacio e Pepe”. For 4 people, we will use 320 grams of spaghetti, 200 grams of Pecorino Romano Dop (a hard sheep cheese, which, with its salinity, brings the spice necessary to the dish) and obviously, as its name suggests (” Cacio e Pepe “means” cheese and pepper “): 8 grams of black pepper in whole grains. It is very important not to use ground pepper in advance!
Bring a large amount of water to a boil. Meanwhile, grate three quarters of the Pecorino very finely in a bowl and crush the pepper grains with a preferably pestle or using a mill. When the water boils, add a little coarse salt then immerse the spaghetti.
To release all the aromas of pepper, grill the grains in a non -stick pan, over low heat, mixing from time to time using the handle. They must be roasted but not burned. Meanwhile, mix the spaghetti well in the cooking water. Recover two ladles of cooking water from the pasta that is added to the pepper. Always cook the pan over low heat, mixing, while the pasta continues to cook.
4 minutes before the time indicated on the packaging, take all the spaghetti from the pan to transfer them to the pan, taking care to keep the cooking water well in the pan. Complete the spaghetti cooking in the way of a risotto: that is to say in the pan with the pepper, adding a ladle of cooking water and stirring continuously with pasta pliers. At one minute before the end of cooking the pasta, we integrate the pecorino little by little into the pan, stirring with the pliers that allow the pecorino to amaze well. When the bottom of the pan is almost dry, we still add a small ladle of cooking water, we continue to mix and integrate the end of the Pecorino bowl.
Serve the spaghetti cacio e pepe by grating the rest of Pecorino on the top. It’s ready! You will understand, this Italian pasta recipe is ultra creamy thanks to the cooking water of the pasta. The “cacio e pepe” is a dish that is eaten alone and immediately. Enjoy your food !