Cacio e pepe: cheese and pepper pasta
Coolish fall weather demands simple but comforting pasta dishes. And the Roman cacio e pepe is basically pasta with cheese and black pepper. It’s delicious and relatively simple to make as long as you take care of your technique.
Likely a dialect word for cheese, cacio is the primary ingredient and usually takes the form of a hard cheese that can be grated, something like a Pecorino (which accounts for nearly one-seventh of the cheese made in Italy, incidentally). For example, there’s a style called caciatto di Pecorino, from Lazio, which is eaten with broad beans.
Cacio e pepe had its origins as dish for shepherds (it is especially good with the sheep’s milk cheese) and relatively simple to whip up at home on a cool fall evening: pasta, fresh cracked black pepper, grated cheese (and sometimes butter) and the critical pasta water. Make sure not to strain the pasta: transfer it directly into your pan. Grate the cheese very finely, and toast the black pepper a bit before combining with the other ingredients.
Buon appetito!
