Cacio e Pepe Pasta (Cheese and Black Pepper Pasta)

This Italian pasta is beautiful in it's simplicity. It has an intense cheesy flavor that's comforting. The Romano is a strong tasting cheese, so if you want to make this with 100% Parmesan you can go for it! Traditionally there is no chicken but it definitely enhances the recipe and makes it more of a meal! I kept important notes in the directions, because it can be quite tricky to get the emulsification right with this sauce. The cheese can only melt well and turn into a rich sauce if the cheese is not too cold, and if the pasta water and pan are not too hot.

If you want to make homemade noodles, check out my recipe: https://brock280.wixsite.com/rachelsfoodblog/blog/homemade-pasta-noodles

Ingredients:

• 13 oz. (368 g) homemade fresh spaghetti or fettucine (made with 3 eggs) or 8 oz. (226 g) store-bought spaghetti or fettucine

• 2 cups finely shredded Pecorino Romano (180 g)

• 1 Tbsp. (6 g) freshly ground black pepper

• 2 chicken breasts (optional)

• 1 tbsp. salted butter for the chicken (optional)

• Salt

Note: Shredding the cheese on the finest setting of your grater makes it melt into the sauce much easier. You can use half Pecorino Romano and half Parmesan Reggiano, which is what I prefer.

Directions:

1. Shred the cheese and place in a bowl. Set aside, letting it sit at room temperature.

2. Season chicken breasts on each side with salt and pepper.

3. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and brown well on each side (3-4 minutes). Then, cut the chicken into strips (will still be raw on the inside), add back to that pan and finish cooking (1-2 minutes). Turn off the heat, remove the chicken onto a plate, cover it, and set in a warm place.

4. While the chicken is cooking start heating water in a pot. Once boiling mix in about 2 tsp. of salt. Then cook the pasta, stirring as necessary. Dried pasta will take about 8-10 minutes to cook to al dente, but fresh pasta will only take 90 seconds-2 minutes to cook. DO NOT drain the water out!

5. When the noodles are about halfway done, put the pan you used to cook the chicken on low heat. Add about 1 Tbsp. freshly cracked black pepper, stir it around and add about 1/4 cup of the pasta water into it. It should become fragrant.

6. When the noodles are done cooking, pick them out of the water and add them to the pan with the black pepper, reserving the leftover pasta water.

7. Take the pan with the noodles off the heat.

8. Let the noodles and pasta water cool for about 5 minutes.

9. Then gradually add about 1/4 cup of pasta water to the finely shredded cheese, stirring well to mix and melt the cheese into a thick sauce.

10. Gradually add some of the cheese sauce to the pasta and take time to vigorously mix it in with the noodles with a pasta utensil, before adding a bit more cheese sauce. Continue until you get a rich creamy sauce, and add more pasta water as needed while emulsifying the cheese, and put the pan back on low heat if it it not melting well.

11. If the sauce is too thick then add a little more pasta water and mix until it's a silky sauce.

12. Mix in the chicken. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and/or pepper if necessary. Serve hot!

13. 4-5 servings.

The pictures above are made with homemade fettuccine noodles, as well as store-bought spaghetti noodles. Here I show the process with store-bought spaghetti noodles:

After cooking the chicken with salt, papper, and butter. Now to the pasta!

The ingredients for the pasta.

Shred the cheese on the finest setting of your grater.

All the cheese is shredded! Let it rest at room temperature.

Start heating the pasta cooking water and make sure to add salt! This flavors the pasta while it cooks.

And cook the pasta.

While the noodles are cooking, add the black pepper to a pan on low heat (you can do this in the same pan you cooked the chicken in).

Then add some of the pasta cooking water and cook a bit until it's fragrant and smells like black pepper.

Once the noodles are done cooking, add them to the pan with the black pepper water.

Then take the noodle pan off the heat and let cool about 5 minutes, let the pasta water pot cool as well.

After cooling for a bit, add some pasta water into the cheeses and mix together.

Now you have a cheese sauce.

Gradually add this cheese sauce to the pasta, mixing VIGOROUSLY between each addition, and adding a little more pasta water at a time to get a good emulsion.

Saucy and complete! You can now add the chicken back in (if you prepared it) and serve!

Silky and super flavorful!