Such a nice and bright day with beautiful people around. My husband is on his way back home from the office and I want to cook something really quick to serve him as a starter or snack maybe, I don’t know. My husband and I are from those people who eat cheese in any form and are great cheese lovers and we want our kids to be the same because of the good health benefits. We would eat anything prepared with cheese in the ingredients but to eat I need to cook first because I’m the only one who has taken charge of cooking in our house. So, let’s start making Cacio e Pepe. What’s that? It’s “Silky Cheesy Meal” plus it has smoky black pepper flavor, at least I won’t say no to it EVER! I also recorded a YouTube short video.
Difficulty
Easy
Prep time
5 minutes
Cooking time
20 minutes
Total time
25 minutes
Servings
3 Persons
Ingredients
150 grams spaghetti
50 grams Parmesan cheese
50 grams cheddar cheese
50 grams Mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons crushed black pepper
3 teaspoons salt
How to Make Cacio e Pepe Recipe
Boiling Spaghetti: Boil water in a pan with 2 teaspoons of salt in it. When water comes to boiling point add spaghetti without breaking. Keep the flame normal for boiling spaghetti to match the preparation of step 2.
Roast crushed black pepper: Take crushed black pepper in a pan and roast on a medium flame to give a smoky touch to our Cacio e Pepe. Once you start feeling black pepper is roasted add some pasta water in it. Put it in low flame until spaghetti gets boiled.
Cheese mixture: In a separate pan, put all 3 grated cheese on low flame and add pasta water. Mix it well, let it simmer for 2 minutes.
Mixing: Mix spaghetti in roasted black pepper mixture, mix it well. Cover it and let it simmer for 3 minutes. Add cheese mixture and again mix well. Let it cook until extra water gets dry and spaghetti remains saucy, which is going to be CACIO e PEPE.
Serving: Serve Cacio e Pepe on a platter. Garnish it with Parmesan cheese and sprinkle some crushed black pepper on it. Cacio e Pepe is ready to serve.
Pro tips
- Cheddar and mozzarella cheeses are optional. Only Parmesan cheese would work well too.
- I didn’t feel like adding salt because of the real flavor of the 3 cheeses that I added. You can add salt according to your taste.
- Only use pasta water to get real taste.
