The simple pasta dish that tests even the best chefs

 

Cacio e pepe

Is past on your summer menu rotation? Sure, traditional Bolognese or lasagna  seems a bit heavy once warm weather arrives. But there are light pasta sauces that make a lovely summer supper, maybe accompanied by a green salad.

The simplest pasta dish of all is cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper pasta). It has four ingredients: pasta, pepper, pecorino cheese, and pasta water. Today’s chefs sometimes use a mixture of parmesan and pecorino, because the pecorino is a strong cheese with a bold flavor. The parmesan softens it. So why is it so difficult that it’s considered the ultimate test of a chef’s skill? It takes talent—and practice and patience—to swirl those ingredients together until they form a smooth, velvet-like sauce that coats every strand of pasta. The starchy pasta water must combine smoothly with the cheeses—it is a slow process. The temperature, the swirl of the ingredients in the pan—both have to be just right. Get it wrong, and you’ll have pasta with clots of cheese.

The recipe is an old one. The usual story is that shepherds, off to spend long, lonely stretches with their herds, could take the ingredients with them because nothing would spoil. They could make cheese from the sheep milk.

Here’s what you do to make cacio e pepe for two:

6 oz. pasta

Tbsp. butter

Tsp freshly cracked pepper

¾ cup Parmesan

½ cup pecorino

Bring three quarts of water to boil, season with salt, and add 6 oz. pasta—spaghetti, fettucine, or other long, thin pasta. Stir it occasionally and remove from the water just before it gets to the al dente stage. Drain, but reserve a cup of pasta water (you probably won’t need it all)

In a separate large skillet melt a Tbsp. of butter and add a tsp. of freshly cracked black pepper. Cook over medium heat, swirling the pan, for just a minute. The pepper should start to toast. Add ¾ cup parmesan and swirl until cheese melts.

Add half the reserved pasta water to the skillet and let it simmer. Remove from heat and add one-half cup pecorino. Again, stir until cheese melts. Add pasta and stir until pasta is coated. Tongs are best at this point. Add more pasta water if needed. If you get it right, cacio e pepe is rich food for the gods.

What started as a peasants’ dish has gone upscale in some restaurants, served as an off-menu luxury items for VIPs, topped perhaps with shaved truffle, or served in a bowl carved from a wheel of pecorino. Italians are however fussy about the purity of the ingredients. Using cream in your cacio e pepe for instance will bring down the wrath of chefs throughout Rome.

Want a less challenging recipe? Here’s one I got from reading Cleo Coyle’s Village Coffee House mysteries—if you haven’t read those, I highly recommend them. Matteo is one of the main characters in the novel, the antagonist in the triangle at the center of the stories. (It’s complicated—read it and see!)

Cacio e Matteo

6 cloves garlic

½ c. olive oil

1.5 tsp salt

16 oz. spaghetti

1 c. Pecorino

1 tsp. coarse ground pepper

1 tsp Italian herb mix

Peel garlic cloves and mash just a bit; put them in a small pan and cover with olive oil. Heat until oil barely simmers. Cover pan and se aside.

Cook pasta, drain, and return to the pot. Immediately pour the warm oil over the pasta. Sprinkle with cheese, pepper, and herbs. Toss and serve immediately.

If you want to be fancy, serve in warmed bowls with crusty bread. A green salad is a nice accompaniment.