Spaghetti with cacio e pepe doesn’t get much more Roman than this dish. If we were to rank the most famous Italian dishes this would definitely be between first and second place after only carbonara! perhaps or almost certainly the most famous recipe from Rome. The recipe is very simple to make, it is made with only two ingredients. The first thing we need is pecorino romano.
This gives the pasta its characteristic taste and savoriness. The second ingredient is parmesan cheese, both cheeses must be finely chopped (grating without applying too much force) so that the cream may be made.
One last thing that is imperative is that the pepper must not be overdone!!! It is possible to prepare the famous cream. First you can add the pepper, pecorino and parmesan to a bowl along with a ladle of pasta water. Mix everything together until you have a solid cream. You can do it the way real chefs do by directly placing the cheeses during creaming and adding water if necessary during the process.
Spaghetti with cacio e pepe
Ingredients
- 500 g Fresh Spaghetti alla chitarra
- 5 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 160 g Pecorino Romano cheese
- Plenty of pepper
Instructions
- We will put a lot of pecorino cheese in the recipe, so the pasta water needs to be mild, not too salty. Once the pasta has been cooked, we begin the sauce procedure by working in a pan with high sides, cold (not over the fire), the pecorino cheese, pepper (better if grated at the time) and 2 ladles of the pasta water, mixing until you have an even and homogeneous mixture without lumps.
- When the pasta is al dente, drain but leave 2 cups of cooking water. We then stir the pasta into the pan we prepared earlier with the pecorino cheese and, helping ourselves with a kitchen knife, mix everything together.If the pasta turns out to be too dry we can add a little bit of the water we put in the glasses.
