The Pasta Queen’s Cacio e Pepe Is for Pasta Purists

Nadia Caterina Munno, aka the Pasta Queen, shares the recipes she grew up with from her childhood in Rome on her very talked-about TikTok account. Cacio e pepe is a Roman dish, and I used to be interested in Munno’s tackle it. She sticks with the namesake substances and simply makes use of Pecorino Romano and pepper — no butter or olive oil right here. Nadia’s model has you combine the cheese with the pasta water earlier than including it to the pasta, a way I had but to see.

Begin by boiling a pot of water with half as a lot water as you’d sometimes use for pasta. Whereas ready for it to return to a boil, mix the grated cheese with 1 cup of water in a big bowl to make a cream. Toast a tablespoon of freshly floor pepper in a dry pan over low warmth till aromatic. Add a splash of water to the pan and take away from the warmth. Add the pasta to the boiling water and prepare dinner till tender. 

Switch the pasta on to the pan and pour within the cheese sauce. Toss, including pasta water a spoonful at a time if the sauce clumps, till silky-smooth.

This recipe had nice taste, however I struggled a bit with the method. I opted to observe an intensive video on her YouTube channel. Sadly, I discovered it is a situation the place the video and the written recipe don’t align. To maintain issues truthful, I opted to observe the recipe as written. 

The primary bother with this recipe is that it requires 450 grams (1 pound) of both contemporary or dried pasta. They actually can’t be swapped 1:1. However based mostly on the quantities of the opposite substances known as for, I went forward and used 1 pound of dried spaghetti. The recipe additionally says to boil the pasta for two to 2 1/2 minutes or till tender. I assumed the decrease cooking time was for contemporary pasta, and ended up boiling my spaghetti for 10 minutes till tender.

This recipe requires the cheese to be measured by weight — 300 grams or about 10 1/2 ounces. Once I added the 1/2 cup of pasta water for the sauce, nevertheless, I knew instantly one thing was off. The recipe signifies it ought to appear like a “luscious cream,” which I believe may be very extensively open to interpretation. In her movies, it’s clearly a thinner sauce; I had one thing a lot thicker and extra paste-like. I wasn’t positive if I had an excessive amount of cheese or not sufficient water, however I caught to how the recipe was written reasonably than attempting to guess at tips on how to right it. 

Once I added the cheese sauce to the pasta I combined it completely and vigorously for fairly a while to mix it as a lot as doable. It wasn’t clumping, but it surely undoubtedly wasn’t a creamy sauce. As quickly as I added a splash of the pasta water to loosen it, it seized up. The recipe says that if the sauce clumps, so as to add extra water, however that simply gave me a watery sauce and did nothing for the clumps. 

Regardless of just a few snafus, I fairly preferred the ratio of substances right here. I wasn’t positive if I had an excessive amount of cheese or not sufficient water for the cheese sauce, however based mostly on the flavour I might guess not sufficient water. I believe a full tablespoon of pepper could also be a bit a lot for some palates, however I preferred how ahead the flavour was.