Authentic Cacio e Pepe
What you’ll need:
Salt for pasta water
1 pound of spaghetti
5 cups Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated
1 tablespoon whole peppercorns
How to make it:
In a pot, bring water to boil. Make sure the water doesn't fill the pot — it should be shallow (a lot less than the normal amount of water you’d use to boil pasta). Lightly salt the water after it comes to a boil.
In the meantime, finely grate the pecorino into a bowl and set aside.
With a mortar and pestle, grind up the peppercorns to a fine consistency.
Add the spaghetti to the boiling water and cook it for half of the amount of time indicated on the box. It’ll finish cooking in the sauce pan.
While the pasta is cooking, heat a stainless steel pan over medium heat. Add half of the pepper and toast it, maximum of one minute. You should smell the aroma of black pepper, but don't burn it.
Once the pepper is toasted, add a ladle of pasta water to the pan.
Over medium heat, add the pasta into the pan and let it finish cooking. Move it around with tongs, and by shaking the pan while it’s cooking. Add more pasta water as needed. The point is to get the starch to release into the pan. You want there to be a little bit of starchy liquid left in the pan. This is what helps form the cream.
Add a small amount of pasta water to the bowl of grated pecorino. With a fork, mix the pasta water in until the mixture forms a paste.
When the pasta is al dente, remove the pasta from the heat. Wait 30 seconds, and add the pecorino mixture to the pan, and stir quickly with tongs. A beautiful creamy consistency should form between the pecorino and the starchy liquid in the pan.
Plate, and spoon the creamy sauce on top. Add the rest of your freshly grated pepper if desired.
