So today I want to share with you what I believe to be, arguably,

THE MOST IMPORTANT PASTA DISH

of all Italian cuisine. Nothing short.

And in my opinion, it's also the key to understand the whole sauce/pasta situation.

And more on this later, but for the moment please welcome

Cacio e Pepe.

Cacio what?

CACIO E PEPE

C-cacia pepe?

It's the italian name. It stands for :

cheese and pepper pasta

Like what? Like garted cheese?

yes

and pepper like

...black pepper?

YES.

It's a lot to take in to be honest, it's aaaah

that's exactly how I felt

about this dish before

actually making it

cause that dish only is apparently simple

It's very tricky to master

but If you manage to do It, I can promise 2 things

*MAJESTIC SPIN*

1 - you get an absolutely

exquisite experience, like something

really luxurious

OLALA'

and 2- the technique you're gonna learn within this recipie

simply is a GAME-CHANGER

and also a keeper

well it's probably better If I show you

what, like a great and an amazing cacio e pepe looks like

* disapproval*

* major disapproval*

AAAAH...this

You see that... silky, smooth creaminess

in between all the layers of pasta

OK, let's do it

Despite being very specific,

Extremely specific, I mean it's an Italian recipe

The list of ingredients is super frugal

Pasta. Those are called Pici. You can also go for Tonarelli(?)

Anyways you just wanna go for, you know, *thick* spagetthi.

Cheese: This is pecorino cheese,

so, cheese made with sheep milk

If you wanna go with Parmigiano, or Parmesan cheese instead, you can...

however you might mess on the funkyness of that cheese.

Of the absolute exquisite pairing with the next ingredient.

Black Pepper

So, it's quite a common ingredient, but you wanna make sure you're using

freshly ground black pepper.

There sure is a difference

And also that you're not using it as a seasoning

But, you know, as an integral part

or flavor of this dish.

*Three* ingredients. The recipe is *that* frugal.

Five, to be honest, because you also need to consider water

and salt. Those are ingredients, let's not...

Take a look at the ingredients.

Try to remember the picture onscreen

Good

What is wrong?

There is something wrong.

Nothing is striking to you?

Do you see butter? Do you see olive oil?

Do you see eggs?

Cream?

The sheep flavour. It's not bad, it's just...

Yes! Thank you.

How are we supposed to get that...

silky, creamyness?

What is it coming from?

Well it's coming from somewhere.

Well, as always when feeling in doubt,

let's head straight to the fridge.

I don't mean like, "let's stuff our faces."

Let's just break down the science

behind all this.

So, in a nutshell, the Cacio e Pepe recipe

is basically asking you the impossible.

It's asking you to square the circle.

It's asking you to mix

melted cheese, so fat,

and water and to turn the whole thing

into a cream.

Which is a big problem,

because as everybody knows, oil or fat...

and water

don't mix.

And you know that if you've been making

a salad dressing before.

That previous statement is both true and false

at the same time.

True because if you were to mix up

even very vigorously

oil and vinegar,

then they would split eventually

but inevitably with the water sinking to the bottom

and the oil floating on top.

And I guess also false as that same mixture of

vinegar and oil

can be made stable, using an emulsifier,

like mustard, for example.

Does this mean I'm going to using mustard and ketchup

in Cacio E Pepe and just watch the whole

comment section being trampled down by

angry Italian people?

No. Luckily for us, there is another way

to stabilize the emulsion by using a thickener

The thickening

The thickening is happening. In our case; starch.

Quick self promo time.

There is a cacio e pepe recipe within

my book. It's very didactic. It's not super classic though.

I'm using french comte cheese instead of

Italian pecorino cheese. Just so me

It's a fully detailed step

by step recipe with all the measurements, all the proportions

If you get this book I've post the link

in the description box down below. WOW.

Let's cook those pasta.

As soon as you will master cacio e pepe

Just adding guanciale, a cheek bacon or just bacon

You will make pasta alla gricia. Not a famous dish, but an amazing one.

By adding tomatoes to that dish, you will going to end up with pasta alla amatriciana. Alla bucatini

Like bucatini alla amatriciana.