Cacio e Pepe

I've had this recipe on my brain for weeks now.  It's one of those "simple is better" dishes.  My son and I were just talking about how  when he was little and very picky, I would make spaghetti and I would just mix it with some garlic fried in olive oil and top with Parmesan cheese.  It was one of his favorites.  I told him about this one and he was excited.  He even asked when I was making it after I pushed it off the meal plan last week.


The recipe I followed was chef Mario Batali's.  I saw him make this on "The Chew" and finally today decided, "I'm making it".  😋  This doesn't have garlic, it's just pasta, pepper, olive oil, butter and cheese.  It doesn't fit into my eating plan at all, but everything in moderation...

My absent sous chef son grated the cheese for me, which was nice.

Romano on the left, Parmesan on the right.  We covered it and put it in the fridge until needed.  I used twice as much cheese as the recipe called for, because, if you're going to splurge - don't hold back on cheese!

I ground the peppercorns in a spice grinder I have.  I didn't even measure it, I just used what I thought would be good which I'm sure is probably more than the recipe called for.  We love pepper.

I have two mortar and pestle's now, but haven't seasoned either and one is specifically for spices!  I ended up using the pestle to crush the peppercorns that didn't get hit by the grinder.  I toasted these and they smelled great.

I then added the butter (unsalted) and extra virgin olive oil with the heat off and stirred until the butter melted.

I waited for the pasta.  I used spaghettini and salted like the "salinity of the sea" as per Mario Batali.  I boiled mine for 6 minutes.  I drained off and reserved a cup of the pasta water.

I put the pasta into the fry pan and turned the heat to medium and added a half cup of the pasta water.  I stirred in the cheeses.

I plated and topped with more cheese.  Then I garnished with parsley too.  I think it needed that.

This was really, really good.  My son who's plate is above, had seconds, that's how much he liked it. We didn't use salt as the cheese did the trick.  Obviously you should like pepper to enjoy this.  I satisfied my pasta craving and will keep this one in the recipe file.  This is super easy for a weeknight dinner.