When you're in a real hurry or just too tired to cook anything too elaborate, here's a great solution: cacio e pepe, literally 'cheese and pepper'. Cacio e pepe is a very typical Roman dish, usually made with spaghetti, bucatini or--my personal favorite--tonnarelli, a kind of square spaghetti made with egg pasta. Literally all you do is boil the pasta in well salted water, drain it (but not very well) and pour it into a bowl. Then add a generous amount of pecorino cheese and lots of freshly ground pepper, and mix well. The hot water that clings to the pasta should meld with the cheese to make a kind of creamy sauce. If the dish is too dry, you can add a bit more of the pasta water. Then top with more pecorino and another healthy grinding of pepper. That's it!
Tonight I committed sort of culinary heresy. Rather than spaghetti, bucatini or tonnarelli, I made my cacio e pepe with pappardelle. Well, pappardelle are not Roman. They're a sort of extra-wide fettuccine from Tuscany or, according to some, Emilia-Romagna. They are not usually paired with cacio e pepe, but often with hearty meat and tomato based sauces. One of my favorites--and probably the most famous--is pappardelle sulla lepre, a Tuscan dish made with hare. In any event, heresy notwithstanding, the result was very satisfying. (And, btw, although it is not very typical, I find that short pastas like rigatoni take very well to a cacio e pepe treatment.)
Here's an short but interesting article (in Italian) on pappardelle, with links to a recipe for pappardelle sulla lepre .
NOTE: There are some other ways to make cacio e pepe. Some recipes call for you to mix the grated cheese and ground pepper in the bowl before adding the pasta. But in my experience, this leads to too much of the cheese clinging to the bottom of the bowl rather than the pasta. Some recipes also tell you to add a bit of butter or un filo d'olio before (or after) you mix the pasta. I haven't tried either variation, but personally I like the austere (but very tasty) simplicity of just pasta, cheese and pepper. And finally, some people mix pecorino with the milder parmigiano-reggiano. To me, however wonderful parmigiano is, the salty 'bite' of pecorino is one of the attractions of the dish, so I wouldn't dilute it with anything else. But, as they say, les goûts ne se discutent pas. If you like the idea of any of these variations, by all means try them and let us know how you like them!
Tonight I committed sort of culinary heresy. Rather than spaghetti, bucatini or tonnarelli, I made my cacio e pepe with pappardelle. Well, pappardelle are not Roman. They're a sort of extra-wide fettuccine from Tuscany or, according to some, Emilia-Romagna. They are not usually paired with cacio e pepe, but often with hearty meat and tomato based sauces. One of my favorites--and probably the most famous--is pappardelle sulla lepre, a Tuscan dish made with hare. In any event, heresy notwithstanding, the result was very satisfying. (And, btw, although it is not very typical, I find that short pastas like rigatoni take very well to a cacio e pepe treatment.)
Here's an short but interesting article (in Italian) on pappardelle, with links to a recipe for pappardelle sulla lepre .
NOTE: There are some other ways to make cacio e pepe. Some recipes call for you to mix the grated cheese and ground pepper in the bowl before adding the pasta. But in my experience, this leads to too much of the cheese clinging to the bottom of the bowl rather than the pasta. Some recipes also tell you to add a bit of butter or un filo d'olio before (or after) you mix the pasta. I haven't tried either variation, but personally I like the austere (but very tasty) simplicity of just pasta, cheese and pepper. And finally, some people mix pecorino with the milder parmigiano-reggiano. To me, however wonderful parmigiano is, the salty 'bite' of pecorino is one of the attractions of the dish, so I wouldn't dilute it with anything else. But, as they say, les goûts ne se discutent pas. If you like the idea of any of these variations, by all means try them and let us know how you like them!
