L-għaġin Cheese and pepper is a typical recipe of Lazio cuisine. Already from the name it can be understood that the ingredients of the dish are very simple: bżar iswedġobon pecorino ruman and pasta. Therefore, poor ingredients that you can certainly have at home or in any case easy to find. The origin of Cacio e pepe pasta has its roots in tradition of shepherds and peasants of the Roman countryside. The innkeepers who initially offered this dish in their inns used to increase the quantity of cheese, with the express purpose of selling more wine to customers. Like all traditional recipes, it often happens that you hear or read real debates and discussions on their preparation, cooking times, ingredients to use and, like all traditional recipes, simpler recipe usually matches the original. In this case, from experience and to be sure of success, we have used two cheesespecorino romano and parmesan, because they blend very well together.

Preparazzjoni

1

After putting the water in a pan to cook the pasta, we proceed with the grating of the cheeses. To do this you can use the classic manual grater or a more convenient and faster electric grater, which in a few seconds will reduce your cheese to powder.

2

After grating the parmesan and pecorino romano, take a rather large bowl and add the two cheeses. At this point, mix them well with the help of a spoon.

3

In the meantime, check the cooking of the pasta, remembering not to add too much salt to the water. Thanks to the presence of pecorino romano, the cacio e pepe pasta is already a very tasty dish.

4

Halfway through cooking, take a ladle of pasta cooking water and pour it into the bowl with the grated cheeses. Then mix gently until you get a cream. In this phase, lumps can be created, which you will have to dissolve or eliminate.

5

After creating the cream, flavor everything with a nice handful of black pepper. Tradition has it that peppercorns are used, freshly ground. This is to ensure the characteristic aroma of freshly ground pepper, which will make your dish even tastier.

6

Once cooked, drain the pasta and add it to the cream of cheeses. Mix well and add a generous sprinkling of black pepper.

7

The cacio e pepe pasta is now ready to be served hot. Do not let it cool otherwise the cream will tend to thicken too much.

Parir

Not all types of pasta are suitable for the preparation of Cheese and pepper. Tradition has it that they are used the tonnarelli with egg, a type of pasta that, thanks to its porosity and large surface, goes well with cream cheese. Long pasta is good only up to a maximum of 500gr. Beyond this quantity it is advisable to use short pasta, which will be easier to manage during processing and cooking.

The square format of the tonnarelli ensures that during the cooking phase there is no unpleasant one mappazzone effect, which could be created. For what concern pecorino ruman, this must be of medium seasoning. When choosing maturation, in fact, it must be borne in mind that the more matured the cheese, the less water it contains. Hence the need to increase the amount of cooking water to form the cream.

Black pepper can be ground at the moment, crush it with a knife or toast it in a pan before incorporating it.

For a perfect cream you need to know that if you use the hot pasta cooking water, it must reach a temperature of 55 °. Not everyone knows, in fact, that at a lower temperature the cheese does not melt evenly, thus leaving those annoying lumps. To avoid all this, it is recommended to use cold water, so as to allow the cheese to melt perfectly and completely. Then add the pasta and a few tablespoons of hot cooking water.

For the classic preparation of cacio e pepe, only pecorino romano is used, but depending on your taste you can replace it with parmesan or make a mix between the two, as in the recipe we have proposed. The result will be different, but still extremely tasty.

Can white pepper be used instead of black pepper? Why not. The traditional recipe calls for the use of black pepper, but if you want to give a particular aroma you can use Muntok white pepper.

Varjanti

The cacio e pepe pasta lends itself to an infinite number of variations. Among these we remember cheese and pepper with cherry tomatoes, which involves the simple addition of fresh cherry tomatoes after the creation of the cream of cheeses. Among the more refined variants is the one with i sea ​​urchinsimma wkoll ma the mussels jew ma the tuna.