Cacio e Pepe

Three ingredients, zero cream. Pecorino, toasted black pepper and starchy pasta water, emulsified into a sauce that clings to every strand.

Kill the heat before the cheese goes in. Too hot and it seizes into clumps. Warm water, cold pan, lots of tossing.

Ingredients

• 8 oz spaghetti or tonnarelli
• 2 tsp black peppercorns, coarsely cracked
• 1½ cups Pecorino Romano, very finely grated
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter

Method

1. Boil the pasta in a wide pan with less water than usual, lightly salted, so the water gets starchy. Cook 2 minutes short of the box time.
2. Toast the pepper in a dry skillet until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add a ladle of pasta water and the butter and let it bubble.
3. Mash the pecorino with a few tablespoons of warm (not boiling) pasta water into a thick paste.
4. Move the pasta into the pepper pan and toss for 1 minute. Kill the heat, wait 30 seconds, then add the cheese paste and toss hard, adding splashes of pasta water until creamy.
5. Serve immediately with more pepper and pecorino on top.