Cacio e pepe — silky, peppery pasta made with sheep cheese — will make you appreciate the simple brilliance of Italian cooking.
Earlier in this summer, I was able to take my children to Italy, where my grandmother was from, to visit some of my relatives. We had a particularly memorable visit to Rome, where my mother’s cousin Marco, a very animated octogenarian, walked us all around his neighborhood near the Colosseum, pointing out the historical sites. The guy logged 8,000 steps wearing a pair of dress shoes, a starched, salmon-colored shirt and a blazer in the 85-degree heat, chewing on a cigar the whole time.
When you eat in Italy, you think a lot about the beauty of simple things — a bowl of fresh apricots, a shot of espresso in a heavy demitasse cup, a spoonful of ricotta cheese drizzled with a neighbor’s honey. Cacio e pepe —is a pasta eaten in the Lazio region of Italy, where Rome is located. It’s a first course you might eat at lunchtime that’s basically just a silky, salty pasta made with sheep milk cheese, pasta water and pepper.
The main problem that happens when you make it is that all the cheese melts together into a slime ball. To get it right, I had to call in my friend Riza Brown, a culinary arts professor at UAA. Her cacio cred comes from helping out at, where on special occasions you can get the pasta tossed in a giant wheel of cheese. Lacking a cheese wheel, we decided to follow what’s called the “paste method,” where you make a cheese-pepper paste and then toss it with the hot pasta and pasta water.
A few tips before you get started: You cannot, I repeat, cannot use pre-grated cheese, because it usually contains anti-caking agents like potato starch that will mess you up. You have to grate the cheese yourself, or as this method recommends, use a food processor or sturdy hand blender. You will get the best results if you use what’s called a bronze-cut spaghetti, which is made in such a way that the exterior of the pasta is rough and starchy looking — not smooth and shiny.
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