Cacio Pepe (Pecorino Cheese & Black Pepper Pasta)

Last night Jeff and celebrated the conclusion of our one year anniversary living in Italy. It was over a year ago that I first started this blog and announced to the world that we were planning to move to Italy for a year. On August 28, 2017 we began our epic Italian journey and shortly after that we moved into our apartment in Nettuno by the sea.

The beginning was both exhilarating and frustrating and at times a little lonely. We had to learn how to get Wi-Fi and operate our cell phones (imagine no connectivity and tv!) I learned to be an English Teacher for those desiring to learn English as a second language. We stumbled our way through the maze of bureaucracy of getting our Visa, our Permesso di Soggiorno and our residency. We rented countless rental cars, we explored beautiful and unknown hill towns and every little corner of our region of Italy. We made friends with a beautiful group of people that have laughed with us, shared experiences with us, showed us the ropes of life in Italy, taught us to cook Italian and worked shoulder to shoulder with us. At the end of the year we were in love with Italy and all of its beauty and frustrations. We want to stay longer, so now it’s time for another year!

Spritz on the patio in true Aperetivo style

We celebrated the conclusion of this year with a quiet dinner on the patio. We started with an Aperetivo of Italian Spritz with patatine (potato chips) and the green dolce olives. For our antipasta course we chose Mozzerella di Buffalo and for the prima we had Cacio e Pepe (pasta with percorino cheese and black pepper). The Secondo was Bistecca alla Fiorentina paired with a local Syrah from Casa Divina Provvidenza winery right here in Nettuno. Jeff fired up the grill and we savored the contentment that comes from being a couple of Californians enjoying “la dolce far niente” (the art of doing nothing”.

I fell in love with Cacio Pepe the first time I tried it. This Roman dish is even more simple than Carbonara but with the same level of difficulty. My first taste of it was at a Bisteccheria in Nettuno on one of our first visits to Nettuno three years ago. A Bisteccheria is restaurant that serves grilled steaks. The name sounds like Beef steak “eria” or bee-steak-er-ee-a. We ordered a beautifully grilled Fiorentina steak, that is similar to a T-bone. Traditionally the meat for a Bistecca alla Fiorentina comes from a Tuscan breed of cattle called the Chianina that has been grazing on the luscious Green rolling hills of Tuscany.

The most important factor in a good Bistecca alla Fiorentina is the period that the beef is left to hang before being butchered. For a good Bistecca alla Fiorentina it should be between 15 and 21 days (compared to the 48 hours allowed for much of our supermarket meat).

The waiter suggested we have Cacio e Pepe with it so we took his suggestion and were so happy we did! It was paired with a beautiful red wine and the flavor combination was nothing short of perfection! Try your own celebration dinner of Bistecca alla Fiorentina with Cacio e Pepe, pour a glass of wine, pull up a chair on the patio and experience “la dolce far niente”

Cacio e Pepe

Ingredients:

Salted water

Olive oil

1/2 cup finely grated Pecorino cheese

Black pepper

1/2 pound dried or fresh Spaghetti

Cook the pasta in heavily salted water (at least a Tablespoon of salt) until “al dente”. I heat a bowl by placing it on top of the pan of boiling water just like I learned from Franks recipe on Memorie di Angelina. Ladle the pasta into the heated bowl with the grated Pecorino and several grinds of black pepper, stirring rapidly so as to soften the cheese and incorporate it into a creamy sauce. You should not keep it on the heat source because If you cook it too fast it will form a cheese ball that is contrary to your attempt of making a creamy sauce. Toss the spaghetti in the bowl in large movements upward, tossing and tossing and doing more starchy water if needed.. You want the spaghetti to be coated but no clumps of cheese. The end result should be a lightly coated pasta speckled with black pepper. The perfect accompaniment to Bisteccha Fiorentina.