Cacio e Pepe Zoom Cooking Class

Simple cacio e pepe! One of my favorites. This was my first Zoom cooking class and I made this delicious dish on camera, along with the “any greens” pesto.

Here’s the cacio e pepe recipe:
Salt (about 2 heaping tablespoons per gallon of water)
12 ounces dried spaghetti (or bucatini, linguini, etc)
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
10-12 turns of ground black pepper from a pepper mill, or less or more to taste
4 ounces Pecorino Romano, Grana Padano or Parmesan, finely grated on a microplaner

In a large pot, bring heavily salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Heat a large sauté pan and add olive oil to coat the bottom. When it shimmers, add the pepper and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup of the starchy pasta cooking water to the pan, increase the heat and let it simmer — this will encourage an emulsion to form. Use tongs to add the cooked pasta directly to the hot pan and coat the noodles in the sauce, then sprinkle in cheese and toss to coat. Enjoy!

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