With only three ingredients to create a delicious dish, spaghetti cacio e pepe known and prepared now throughout Italy along with other first courses of Lazio cuisine such as carbonara and amatriciana. A very tasty and fragrant first course, quick to prepare for last-minute lunches, all you need is some Pecorino Romano, spaghetti, and pepper that should not be too little… In this recipe, I used thick spaghetti, but tonnarelli would be ideal as typical Roman pasta. All that’s left is to try and enjoy!!

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Economical
Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Portions: 4
Cooking methods: No cooking
Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

7 oz grated Pecorino Romano
2 tbsps coarsely ground black pepper
14 oz spaghetti
cooking water

Tools

Pan
Container

Steps

First, put the water in the pot for cooking the spaghetti. While the water is boiling, crush the peppercorns or, if you prefer, you can grind them, but I recommend not to make it too fine (I used a simple meat mallet, but if you have a mortar even better).
When you have finished crushing the pepper, put it in the pan and toast it over a low heat for 2 minutes. Then add 2 ladles of hot water (the same as the spaghetti).
Let the water reduce a little over moderate heat. Now prepare the cream, put the grated Pecorino in a container and pour 1 ladle of hot water (equivalent to about 0.4 cup) and stir quickly; it should be a smooth and soft mixture.
At this point, the water will have reached the boiling point, salt, but not too much, and put the spaghetti.
Drain the spaghetti 3/4 minutes before the end of the cooking time and add them to the pan with the pepper. At this point, stir-fry the spaghetti and if necessary add a little more cooking water.
Turn off the heat, add the Pecorino cream and half a ladle of cooking water, mix vigorously.
Your cacio e pepe is ready!! What a delight!!