CACIO e PEPE (cheese and pepper) PASTA
Another snowy day with nothing much in your pantry?
Got pasta?
Got butter?
Got Parmesan?
some dried chilis?
salt & pepper?
Well you’ve got dinner!
CACIO e PEPE
Spaghetti or Fettucini (enough for 2 servings)
1 generous tsp freshly cracked pepper (extra to garnish)
1 tsp dried chilis
3-4 tbsp butter
3/4 cup grated Parmesan (+ 1 cup more if making ‘Frico’, see below)
Cook pasta in well salted water until ‘al dente’.
Scoop out 1/2 cup pasta water.
Heat butter in saucepan until frothy.
Add cracked pepper and chilis and cook until toasty and a bit browned.
Stir in reserved pasta water and simmer for a minute or two.
Drain pasta and add to saucepan.
Stir until pasta is nicely coated with buttery mixture.
Stir in Parmesan until melted and well combined.
Pile pasta into bowls or onto serving plates and garnish with extra cracked pepper.
If you want to ramp your meal up to the next level
grate some extra Parm (about 1 cup) ,
spread it on parchment paper in 2 circular piles.
Bake in a hot oven (400 ° )
or
spread on a grill sheet on a hot grill
for 6-8 minutes until golden
Voilà!
…you have Parmesan Frico to dress up your pasta bowl…
Dinner doesn’t get any simpler than this!
- Spaghetti or Fettucini (enough for 2 servings)
- 1 generous tsp freshly cracked pepper (extra to garnish)
- 1 tsp dried chilis
- 3-4 tbsp butter
- ¾ cup grated Parmesan (+ 1 cup more if making 'Frico', see below)
- Cook pasta in well salted water until 'al dente'.
- Scoop out ½ cup pasta water.
- Heat butter in saucepan until frothy.
- Add cracked pepper and chilis and cook until toasty and a bit browned.
- Stir in reserved pasta water and simmer for a minute or two.
- Drain pasta and add to saucepan.
- Stir until pasta is nicely coated with buttery mixture.
- Stir in Parmesan until melted and well combined.
- Pile pasta into bowls or onto serving plates and garnish with extra cracked pepper.
- If you want to ramp your meal up to the next level grate some extra Parm (about 1 cup) spread it on parchment paper in 2 circular piles.
- Bake in a hot oven (400 ° ) or spread on a grill sheet on a hot grill for 6-8 minutes until golden
- Voilà! ...you have Parmesan Frico to dress up your pasta bowl...