Cacio e Pepe in Parmesan Bowls 🧀🍝

July 8, 2018

I could alternatively have called this post „Roman Dolce & Gabbana spaghetti with cheese and pepper”, but I won't, because Dolce & Gabbana didn't pay me for the advertising. 😂😂 joking, of course – it is a great honour that this pasta ended up in my hands and my stomach at all.😁 If anybody still doesn't know, I won't hide it or dress it up, I'll confess to you openly – I am a maniac for all thingsposh, from cosmetics and accessories to dishes, ingredients and, in this case, even pasta. 😂

So, every time I walked past a shop window my eyes would snag on these colourful pasta packets, but I never dared go closer, because I knew I would want all of them and would end up stuffing my kitchen cupboards with pasta in pretty packets that I wouldn't eat anyway.😁 But yesterday my feet took me to the pasta shelf of their own accord, because how long can you go on deceiving yourself and resisting pretty packaging (I am hopeless😁). Let me cut the story short. I saw that Di Martino, in collaboration with Dolce & Gabbana, had released a new limited-edition run of pasta, so in summary – yes, my cupboards are now full ofposhpasta.😀

Pasta with cheese and pepper

On the way home I already had a hundred ideas about which new recipe to share with you, but in the end Cacio e Pepe won. What is it? It is an absolutely minimalist and yet somehow luxurious dish – pasta with cheese and pepper. It is a dish that goes back to the deep past – to the days of the Roman Empire. It is also one of the oldest dishes in Italian cooking, and everybody who makes it interprets it differently. There is no single recipe for this dish, but there are a few immovable requirements – the highest quality pasta, Pecorino Romano cheese and fresh pepper. Ancient Cacio e Pepe didn't even use butter or olive oil to make the sauce. All it takes for the sauce to appear is the water the pasta cooked in, the cheese and the pepper, because the starch in the pasta water is the binder that brings the cheese, pepper and water together into a single sauce.

Pasta with cheese and pepper

„La Famiglia, la Pasta, l’Italia”-, say Dolce & Gabbana. To my eye, those three come together in one dish – Cacio e Pepe. 🙂 I very much hope your family will sit down at the table too, to taste real pasta and real Italy. ❤

P.S. this isn't an advert. If I really like a product, I always share it with you. I have never advertised anything on my blog.🙂

Pasta with cheese and pepper

Cacio e Pepe in Parmesan Bowls

Ingredients

100 g grated Parmesan
250 g good spaghetti
salt
2 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground black pepper
60-70 g grated Pecorino

Instructions

First make the Parmesan bowls. Preheat the oven to 180-200 degrees, line a baking tray with baking paper and shape the grated Parmesan into discs about 15-16cm across. Bake for 5-7 minutes; the moment the cheese starts turning golden, take the tray out and very carefully and quickly lift the discs with a spatula onto an upturned bowl, so the cheese takes its shape and hardens. If you leave the cheese in the oven too long it won't take the shape of the bowl any more, because it will have set too far. My recommendation – make each disc on a separate sheet of baking paper, so that when you take it out of the oven you can pick up the paper with the cheese and let it slide onto the bowl without a spatula (much less chance of tearing or spoiling the still hot, soft Parmesan disc).
Cook the pasta in salted water according to the packet instructions (it should be al dente).
While the pasta cooks, fry the ground pepper in butter in a pan (about 1 minute). Put the grated Pecorino into a bowl.
When the pasta is cooked, drain it, keeping some of the water aside (about 1 cup).
Pour a little under half a cup of the pasta water over the Pecorino and stir so the cheese melts into a creamy consistency.
Add the pasta to the pan with the butter and pepper, pour in a little under half a cup of the pasta water and the olive oil. Add the Pecorino and heat until the pasta and cheese reach the consistency you want.
Serve the pasta in the Parmesan bowls and scatter over grated Parmesan.
Enjoy!