20 min
Chef Danilo Cortellini
You can’t call yourself a true pasta lover if you have never tasted a ‘cacio e pepe’ before! A quintessential roman dish (from Rome) with only 3 ingredients, pasta – cacio (cheese) – and black pepper. As there is no space to hide any mistakes!! A really simple recipe, though it is in fact quite complicated to master with confidence, as there’s no room to hide any mistakes!
For this version, I’ve swapped the traditionally used Pecorino Romano cheese for my favourite Grana Padano Riserva aged over 20 months – just to give a new twist to this classic
recipe. The finished result? A rich and creamy pasta with the unmistakable Grana Padano flavour.
This recipe is great and also lactose free. In fact, during the Grana Padano production and aging process, the lactose is broken down into lactic acid by bacteria, resulting in a very low lactose content – typically less than 0.1g per 100g – which is well below the threshold considered safe for most people with lactose intolerance.
Ingredients
400 g thick good quality spaghetti
250/300 g grated Grana Padano Riserva over 20 months
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
In a large saucepan gently heat a tbsp of ground black pepper for about 1 minute. Toast it for
2/3 minutes and then cool the pan down with a ladle of water. Now, if you want to cook the
pasta traditionally, drop it into salted boiling water. But if you would like to try the pasta
risottata method (cooked like a risotto), add the pasta straight into the saucepan with the
pepper and pour enough hot water to cover it.
Cook the pasta for the time indicated on the packet. As with risotto, keep adding hot water as
it gets absorbed. Stir gently for the first 2 minutes to avoid breaking the spaghetti and
continue stirring occasionally as it cooks. By the time the pasta is done, the remaining liquid
should already be creamy thanks to the starch released.
Turn off the heat completely, making sure there is at least one ladle of residual water left in
the pan.
Now, completely off the heat, gradually add the finely grated Grana Padano Riserva mixing it
into the pasta. If the spaghetti becomes too sticky, add a ladle of reserved pasta water – hot
but no longer boiling, as high heat can cause the cheese to split and create lumps) and keep
mixing. The cheese, the water and the starch, will all bind together into a creamy, emulsified
sauce with the right movement and care.
Plate immediately in shallow bowls, finish with a last scrunch of black pepper and a sprinkle
of grated Grana Padano – and enjoy!
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Chef’s tip
Optionally, you can toast the black pepper in a pan for a couple of minutes to enhance its aroma.