Future
Cacio e Pepe, Then Cacio e Pepe Again
This classic Roman pasta dish is a great thing to cook often, so the technique enters your muscle memory.
Mark Bittman’s cacio e pepe.Credit…Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards.
Good morning. You could spend a lifetime perfecting cacio e pepe, the classic Roman pasta dish of cheese and black pepper mixed with spaghetti.
Mark Bittman’s recipe (above) is a great place to start, or restart, your journey. He recommends making a kind of paste of grated Pecorino and a little Parmesan mixed with cold water, then vigorously stirring the cheeses with the hot pasta, along with a little reserved cooking water and olive oil, so that the starch emulsifies and grabs onto the melted cheese to cloak the spaghetti.
This is easy to write, but takes a few times to come into tactical focus when you’re actually doing it. Cacio e pepe is a great thing to cook often so the technique enters your muscle memory. Make cacio e pepe today!
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Cacio E Pepe
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If you’re interested in a graduate-level cacio e pepe, try it on pizza, a technique I learned from this amazing video of the Roman pizza chef Stefano Callegari. He bakes a high-sided pizza round with ice cubes on top to create a moist and steaming environment, into which he introduces grated Pecorino that melts into sauce on top of the pie. What could go wrong?
