There are four great Roman pastas, all connected: Gricia, Cacio e Pepe, Carbonara, and Amatriciana.
They each play off of the others and reveal different sides to the same concept.
Gricia is simple and focused on the luscious guanciale fat with a dusting of pecorino, while cacio e pepe loses the meat and adds more cheese and pepper for rich sauce, add an egg and keep the meat and you have indulgent carbonara, skip the egg and add tomatoes for hearty Amatriciana.
Pasta, guanciale, and pecorino are the veins that pulse through each one of these quintessentially Roman dishes. Just as Fellini examines and plays with our perception of fame culture and the cafe society, Italian cuisine can play with out perception of what a few simple ingredients can mean.
Buon Appetito!
CACIO E PEPE (CHEESE AND PEPPER PASTA)
Cacio e pepe is one of the signature dishes of a unique city like Rome.
Unique is also the taste of this first course: just a few well-dosed and used ingredients are enough to have a real explosion of flavor!
SERVINGS:4
INGREDIENTS:
400 grams (14 oz) of spaghetti
200 grams (1 cup) of grated Pecorino romano cheese
10 grams (2.25 tsp) of ground black pepper
salt to taste
METHOD:
Cook the spaghetti in salted water and in the meantime pour the pecorino romano cheese and black pepper into a small glass or aluminum bowl.
Raise the pasta al dente (do not drain it otherwise it will lose all its cooking water!) at least 2 minutes before the end of cooking, pour it into the bowl with the pecorino mixture and season it well adding two ladles of cooking water to make sure everything is well mixed.
It is also possible to mix pecorino and black pepper in a large pan where the spaghetti will be drained, remembering however that they should NOT be cooked or put on the stove to mix but should be mixed “cold”.
Stir and serve immediately to prevent the pasta from cooling.
