Bucatini Cacio e Pepe (vegetarian)

“Too dry,” is the reaction I typically get from Alberto whenever I show him a photo of a pasta dish. Whereas I am easily distracted by hand-painted ceramics and artfully undone table linens, he imagines himself actually eating it.

Now, we’re not talking about plain pasta topped with sauce, like in the emoji– even if the pasta and sauce are integrated, it’s often not creamy enough. Is it just that table styling in cookbooks favour a neat look? Perhaps, but that is only part of the story.

I witness one of the biggest misconceptions around pasta when it’s treated as a side dish, much like rice. In home cooking, for example, I have encountered people boiling pasta in advance to mix through a jarred sauce later. The sauce from a jar is not the problem per se–we buy pesto more often than we make it– but the point is to cook the pasta freshly and serve immediately.

Pasta is its own course (primo piatto) in an Italian meal, and the sides (contorni) that accompany the main dish (secondo piatto) are often vegetables. So pasta is not a side dish, and just because it is cooked together with other ingredients, it’s not like fried rice either, which uses cold, pre-cooked rice. Neither is it swimming in a warm soup like Asian noodles–unless the pasta is filled, like Tortellini in brodo (broth), which is a bit like wonton soup in theory.

As long as the pasta dish is treated as a whole, a handful of ingredients can create the perfect harmony. The frugal recipes in this series are what is known as cucina povera (cuisine of the poor), the historical equivalent of budget cooking. Legend has it that Cacio e Pepe was born out of necessity, as camp food for shepherds who spent a long time away from home carrying around dried pasta, peppercorns and aged cheese.

Ingredients

Serves 2

200 g of long pasta, such as bucatini or spaghetti

100 g Pecorino Romano cheese, at room temperature

5 g whole black peppercorns

1.5 litres water

5 g fine sea salt (for cooking the pasta)

Method

1. Finely grate the Pecorino Romano into a small bowl.

2. Grind the black peppercorns coarsely.

3. Bring a large pot with 1.5 litres of water to a rolling boil, adding 5 g salt as it reaches the boil (this is less salt than the typical pasta dish, as pecorino is salty). Add the pasta, bring back to the boil and cook for a minute or two less than the packet instructions.

4. Toast the ground pepper in a large pan over medium heat for a few minutes, stirring so it does not burn.

5. Add 2 ladlefuls of pasta water to the pepper pan and turn the heat down to low. The water should turn brown.

6. Transfer the pasta from the pot to the pan, and let them soften in the peppery water. Add more cooking water from the pot if necessary.

7. Pour a ladleful of the slightly cooled (ie not boiling) starchy pasta water over the grated cheese and stir vigorously for a gel-like consistency.

8. Once the pasta is cooked, turn off the heat. Add the pecorino cream atop the pasta, like an egg in a nest, so that the cheesy cream does not touch the hot pan (this is to avoid stringy or clumpy cheese).

9. Toss or stir until the pasta is evenly coated in a creamy sauce. Add more pasta water from the pot if too dry–conversely, turn the flame back on if too watery.

10. Taste and correct for salt before transferring to a warmed serving platter. Serve immediately.

Notes

• Pasta: Traditionally, the Romans use tonnarelli, which are long egg pasta. However, dry pasta such as bucatini and spaghetti, made with just flour and water, are likely easier to find. Bucatini look like thick spaghetti with a hole through the middle.

Although generally it’s a good idea to boil the pasta in plenty of water so that it can circulate freely and cook evenly, we are using only 1.5 litres of water here so that the resulting pasta water is rich in starch.

When choosing dry pasta, look for the white colour and rough surface characteristic of the bronze drawn method of production. These types of pasta will release plenty of starch into the water, which is crucial in this dish. Smooth and yellow pasta, on the other hand, will stick together and lack the coarse texture to catch the sauce.

Quality pasta tends to have a higher protein content, and you can also find some that use ancient grains. As they are dried for a longer time at a lower temperature, they retain more nutrients than mass-produced pasta that is blasted at high temperatures.

• Pepe: The pepper in this recipe should not be in powder form. Adjust your pepper grinder to a medium grind, use a mortar and pestle, or a meat pounder. Kampot black pepper, used here, has a delicate, tea-like aroma but a stronger taste that lingers.

• Cacio: Pecorino cheese is made from sheep’s milk, and Pecorino Romano specifically is used in this recipe. If the Pecorino is very young, it will be too soft to grate. It is important to grate the cheese finely to avoid lumps in the sauce.

Purists will groan, but it is possible to use aged Parmigiano and Pecorino Romano in equal parts, or to substitute Parmigiano for the Pecorino, if you cannot find the latter or don’t love sheep’s cheese. When adjusting the taste, note that Pecorino is saltier than Parmigiano.

If you don’t have enough cheese, swapping some of the cheese for butter will also make the flavour milder (and the runnier sauce will require less pasta water). With the reduced sodium, you could even use a more subtle variety of peppercorn and sprinkle truffle salt on top!

We would love to see how you've made this recipe your own! Please leave a comment or tag me on social media (@xoxo_miso_girl)