Cacio E Pepe
This and easy and versatile recipe you can prepare in advance. From Roscioli Rome.
INGREDIENTS: Serves 2
- 5oz High Quality Pecorino DOP cheese, finely grated
- 2oz High Quality Parmigiano Reggiano cheese finely grated
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 2 tsp of strong black pepper like Cape Herbs & Spice Extra Bold Peppercorns
- 6oz pasta like Tagliolini
- 1/2 cup high quality Pancetta cubed
- Pot of water lightly salted (the cheeses - particularly the Pecorino, are already salty so you don't require much salt in the water
Now Cook:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees. Serving plates will go in to heat up.
2. Heat the water till boiling.
3. While water is heating, in a small mixing pot, fry the pancetta until a nice brown. Keep in the pot with with the fatty oils released from the pancetta
4. Crack the eggs and put only the yolks into a mixing bowl. For the last egg, add the yolk plus half of the albumen (the egg white) from that egg.
5. Add the cheese and pepper to the eggs and mix with a fork to blend the ingredients.
6. When the water is boiling add the pasta and cook till al dente.
7. While pasta is cooking, place serving plates in a hot oven to heat up.
8. When the pasta is done, take a half ladel (about 3-4 oz) of the water from the pasta and add to the egg mixture.
9. Add the pancetta and oils to the egg mixture and stir in.
10. Drain the pasta, combine with egg mixture, divide into 2 portions and serve immediately.
Hint: The receipe is easy to scale up. For example, if 4 people then 8 eggs, double cheese, pepper and pancetta and use all of the albumen from the last egg.
Also, you can use this recipe as the core for pasta variations. For example, if you don't like pancetta, subsitute with smoked salmon cut into pieces. If you want to make a pasta al piquante, add some hot chili flakes. This recipe also goes well with high quality anchovies like what you can purchase at The Spanish Pig.