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Cacio e pepe

1K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  someday 
#1 ·
Having some issues with this dish. Simple enough, only a few ingredients, but apparently the devil is in the details. My issue is the cheese wants to clump together instead of making a nice sauce. I have tried a few different methods. One recommended using a warmed bowl to mix everything. I toast my pepper corns, crush them, cook the pasta until just short of done, add it to the heated bowl with the pepper, cheese, and some pasta water and start stirring. When I do this I get big hunks of coagulated cheese/pepper with pretty naked pasta. I have also tried Kenji Alt Lopez's method of using a larger skillet to cook the pasta in a fairly small amount of water. I a second skillet you heat some EVOO and then add the pepper and cook until is starts to sizzle a bit. Then all the pasta to this EVOO/pepper pan, add cheese and pasta water and stir to form the sauce. When I have tried this I get a lot of the cheese sticking to the bottom of the pan instead of forming a sauce. Open to any suggestions since I am going to keep making this until I get it right. :)
 
#4 ·
You may try adding more pasta water than you think it needs (think like a half a cup or maybe even a bit more) and stirring it (kinda like risotto style) for a minute or two as the pasta water reduce/absorbs and the cheese melts into it.

You might try checking out youtube because I imagine there must be dozens of videos on how to do this and the visual might help you out instead of just reading about it.
 
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