Hey guys, what's up, this is Alex.
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.