Even though I’m trying to stay positive during quarantine, I was still pretty grumpy last Friday because Krishna and I were supposed to be on a flight to Zurich. We had been planning our trip to visit Jen for a few months, and we were going to frolic around Switzerland for a few days, then fly to Italy, stay on the Amalfi Coast, and finish the trip off with a few days in Rome. I was so, so, so excited to travel with these girls, explore new cities, sit on the beach with an Aperol Spritz, and of course, eat so much pizza, pasta and gelato.

So instead, I booked a Zoom call, Krishna sent me a list of Italian wine recos, we queued up an Italian Summer playlist on Spotify, and we all made pasta. We spent a few hours eating, drinking and catching up and even though it didn’t take the place of the real thing, it was still so nice to be together.

For my pasta dish, I made something I was so looking forward to eating for the first time in Rome: Cacio e Pepe. This is a simple pasta with a sauce made of only two ingredients: pecorino romano cheese and freshly ground black pepper. I guess it can be tricky to make at home, but luckily Deb’s done all the hard work for us, and has a foolproof method explained on her blog. You grind the cheese and pepper into a fine powder, then add water to make a paste. This gets tossed with hot, cooked pasta and splashes of starchy pasta water until a thick sauce coats the noodles. It’s absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to try the real thing.

Cacio e Pepe

Source: Smitten Kitchen

Yield: These measurements serve 1, but easily multiplied for more

Ingredients

• 4 oz spaghetti
• 2 oz pecorino romano
• a lot of freshly ground black pepper (approx 25 grinds of your pepper mill)

Directions

1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and salt it very well. Cook the spaghetti until it’s al dente (look for the time advised on the box).
2. While that’s getting going, add the pecorino romano to your food processor and grind until it’s very finely grated. Add the pepper and pulse to mix it in. Add up to 2 tbsp COLD water and process until the mixture forms a smooth paste, about the texture of icing.
3. When the pasta is almost done, scoop out 1/2 cup of the starchy pasta water with a glass measuring cup. Set aside.
4. Drain the pasta quickly in a colander, then immediately drop it into a medium sized bowl.  Add the cheese/pepper paste and toss vigorously to combine. As it melts and begins to coat the noodles, add splashes of the reserved pasta water to loosen it up until a nice sauce forms. Eat right away!