Cacio e Pepe (e Olio)

This is a classic dish that is easy to make. With few ingredients, this recipe still delivers on flavor. The original dish, even in Italy, often times comes out too salty. There are two ways to make it less salty: 1) use a combination of aged pecorino (e.g., Locatelli), a little olive oil, and no salt. This also renders the dish a less creamy, which we prefer, or 2) Use a less salty pecorino sardo from Sardegna - our favorite cacio e pepe place in Roma (Marziali 1922) actually does this even though most Roman restaurants use more salty pecorino from Lazio. Costco recently switched from selling Locatelli pecorino romano (salty) to pecorino sardo, so I switched to using that and it has worked out well. However, we still prefer to use a little olive oil. If you want to try the official recipe without olive oil, use 250g (2 cups) pecorino sardo.

With this recipe in particular, I prefer to make much thicker spaghetti called bigoli (shown in photo below) using a special pasta extruder called a bigolaro. Otherwise, a store-bought spaghettini seems to work better than thicker spaghetti.

500 g (1.1 lb) De Cecco Spaghettini or homemade spaghettini or homemade bigoli (best option)

1.8 cup (215g) Pecorino sardo (e.g., from Costco)

1/3 cup (73g) extra virgin olive oil

1 1/3 Tbsp peppercorns, coarsely crushed (e.g., in a plastic ziplock bag using the flat side of a meat tenderizer hammer, shown in photo below)

 

1.     Start boiling the spaghettini/bigoli in unsalted water.

2.     In a pan large enough to hold spaghettini/bigoli in later step, heat about a quarter of the pepper, by itself, for 2 minutes.

3.     Add half a ladle of the boiling pasta water to the pan with the pepper and let it cook down a little at medium-high heat.

4.     Add another half a ladle of the pasta water to the pan plus all the olive oil and half the Pecorino gradually. Whisk to a smooth consistency at low heat.

5.     Add half-cooked spaghettini/bigoli and a little more pasta water to the pan and swirl around to coat and separate strands. Turn up heat to high. The spaghettini/bigoli will finish cooking here, so you need just enough water to allow it to do so without creating a soupy dish, but you don't want it dry either.

6.     Add the remaining three-quarters of pepper a little at a time at low heat. Stir well to get it evenly distributed.

7.     Gradually stir in the remaining half of Pecorino (still at low heat), allowing the cheese to melt before adding more. It's hard to completely keep it from clumping, but using low heat and slowly adding the cheese helps alot.

8.     Optionally top spaghettini/bigoli with a little Pecorino.

 

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