LimeCake

Pasta is the best food for one. When I feel lazy, or my fridge is bare, nothing is better than pasta. And if the grand daddy of Italian food TV makes it, I make it too. In his slightly less rotund days on Molto Mario, he made this Bavette with Cheese and Pepper (sounds so much better in Italiano).

In true Mario-style, butter is your friend. Not much though, just a smidgen, as always.

Smitten Kitchen has made this too, albeit with a slightly different technique. Quite frankly, it’s my kind of technique. Cooking for one, I don’t wanna be washing up for seven.

I made this and wondered why I hadn’t tried something this rudimentary sooner. It is incredibly satisfying – the sharp bite of Pecorino (too often underappreciated) and the creaminess of the ‘sauce’…

All ye who scoff at this simpleton pasta be gone. Use good Pecorino and I promise you, it is worthy of being put on any top dollar menu.

Pasta Cacio e Pepe (from the Smitten Kitchen and Mario Batali)

serves 1

8 oz long pasta (I used Barilla’s Fettuccine Rigate)

1 tbs olive oil

Knob (about 1 tablespoon) of butter

¼ cup pecorino romano + extra for sprinkling at the end

Freshly ground pepper

Salt (optional – in my case, not necessary at all)

Cook spaghetti in well-salted water to your al dente tastes in a large, wide-bottomed pot. (You’ll have fewer dishes to wash if you use this pot to assemble the dish as well.) Drain spaghetti, reserving 1 1/2 cups of pasta cooking water.

Dry out your pot, then heat the olive oil over high heat until almost smoking. Add drained spaghetti and 1 cup of reserved pasta water and jump back, this will splatter mightily.

Add butter, 1/4 cup cheese and ground pepper and toss together with tongs. Taste, adding more pasta water, cheese, pepper or salt (which should not be neccessary, as Romano is very salty) to taste.

Serve immediately, sprinkling with extra cheese and an extra grind or two of black pepper.

Note: I imagine this pasta would be great cooked risotto-style, creating an even creamier ‘sauce’, if ever that be possible.

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