- Hi and welcome to Vincenzo's Plate.
Today I'm showing you how to make
the perfect cacio e pepe pasta, oh yeah,
using three simple
ingredients: pecorino cheese,
a good quality black
pepper, and spaghetti.
The perfect cacio e pepe, for you.
(playful piano tune)
We are going to make cacio e pepe today
in less than 12 minutes.
So, what I'm going to do now,
first we need to cook the spaghetti.
So, as you can see, I
haven't used too much water
because we need to get the
starch out of this water.
So there's a small amount
of water, not too much,
and add in some rock salt.
Rock salt will give the
flavor to the water.
Now I'm going to cook
this beautiful spaghetti.
These are spaghettoni, so
they are thick spaghetti.
And you need to use thick
spaghetti for cacio e pepe.
It's an important detail for
this recipe, thicker spaghetti.
If you can make it by
hand, fresh, even better.
- [Suzanne] Why does it have to be thick?
- Oh Suzanne, for the creamy
pasta like cacio e pepe,
it's an authentic type
of pasta that you use,
the thick spaghetti, and
I think the little ones,
they won't make it as
smooth and as delicious
when you eat it, you know.
You need that thick spaghetti.
Put it in, and again, I don't
have too much water in there.
See, I've got enough, there's
just enough water in there
in order for us to get the starch, okay?
Now while the pasta should
cook for about 12 minutes,
I'm not going to cook it for 12 minutes
like the packet is saying.
I'm going to cook it for nine minutes.
The last three minutes,
we'll cook it in there.
Cook it three minutes
left, three minutes less
than the normal pasta cooking time.
Now, turn this on, on a medium heat,
and we are going to toast the pepper.
Toast the black pepper.
This is why it is an
important thing to do.
It's an important thing to do because
we want to get the flavors out.
We want the pepper to be
more smooth in the flavor.
We want the pepper to, you know,
to bring all the flavors out.
And it's also important that you
grate the pepper on the spot.
- [Suzanne] Wow, that's a lot of pepper.
- Oh yeah, I mean, cacio e
pepe is pepper and cheese.
- [Suzanne] Well, that's true.
- Oof, can you smell it, Suzanne?
- [Suzanne] Ooh, I can.
- The flavors are coming up.
- [Suzanne] It smells a little bit spicy.
- See that?
That's what you want,
that's what you want.
In the meantime, look
at the pasta over here.
- See the white?
- Oh wow.
- That's the starch.
Why I'm using a very good
quality pasta over here.
Okay, so the pepper is toasting.
We have beautiful pecorino cheese.
The pecorino cheese is the authentic,
the only cheese you are meant to use.
But also in these days now,
people like to mix it
with Parmesan because
Parmesan is a bit more delicate.
There is no delicacy in this dish.
This needs to be rich,
it needs to be rich, strong in flavors.
So I will recommend pecorino cheese.
Now how much pecorino am I'm going to use?
To be honest, I not sure... uh, make sure
the water doesn't go out.
I don't know how much pecorino.
I'm just a lover of pecorino.
Suzanne, how much do you love pecorino?
- [Suzanne] I absolutely love it.
- [Vincenzo] So how much
are we going to use?
- [Suzanne] Lots.
- [Vincenzo] That's the measurement, lots.
And look what's happening over here.
I'm grating a lot of pecorino
so we can make the yummy cream.
As you can see, there is no
cream involved in this pasta
because we are going to create
the cream with the pecorino.
Is that enough, Suzanne?
- [Suzanne] Little bit more.
- [Vincenzo] Little bit more?
Okay.
- [Suzanne] All right, that's enough.
- Okay, we can stop now.
This is toasted.
How do I tell when it's toasted?
Because all the flavors came out.
So what do I do now, Suzanne?
I get a little bit of water.
I get a little bit of water
here from the pasta water.
Say what would that be?
That would be about half, half glass.
Put it in there.
- [Suzanne] Oh wow.
- [Vincenzo] And all the
white that you see there
is from the starch.
Put a little bit more.
What's important here,
we don't want to burn
the pepper, hey Suzanne?
- [Suzanne] Yeah, exactly.
- [Vincenzo] But this, believe
it or not, this water here?
It's going to be a cream.
Can you believe it?
- [Suzanne] Oh, you can smell it now.
- [Vincenzo] Can you smell it?
- [Suzanne] Yeah.
- The flavors are coming out, right?
Okay, so pecorino's here.
Suzanne, you know what?
We need to put a little bit more.
A little bit more pecorino.
- [Suzanne] More?
- Oh, yeah.
We just came back from Rome, guys.
We were there in September,
and we ate some really,
really good cacio e pepe.
- [Suzanne] Yeah, we did.
- And, we want to bring this
beautiful dish from Rome
right into your kitchen.
- [Suzanne] Aw, now it's all
going up my nose, the pepper.
- Look at that.
The cacio e pepe is
originally from Rome, okay?
There are many different
variations of cacio e pepe,
this is how I like to make it,
I think this is the
perfect way to make it.
And you don't go wrong with that.
As you can see the spaghetti, Suzanne,
are very al dente, can you see?
It's not cooked yet.
But we have two more minutes to go.
How long we been cooking so far, Suzanne?
- [Suzanne] Ah, about four minutes?
- Four minutes, so we
go four more minutes.
Cacio e pepe could be, Suzanne,
possibly the most easiest,
the easiest, in terms of ingredients,
because we're using three ingredients.
But if we don't follow the
steps, it can't be easy,
it can be a very difficult dish, so...
See that?
- [Suzanne] Wow.
- See all the white,
that's from the starch.
The water is evaporating,
which is what you want.
I'm gonna get a little bit of pasta water,
because it's full of starch.
But not too much, see,
that's all I'm using.
That's all I'm using, see that?
- [Suzanne] Can I see?
- Probably even too much,
I wanna use maybe a
little bit less than that.
Because what I want to
create here Suzanne,
I want to create very thick, thick cream.
And look at that, look
what I'm doing right now.
- [Suzanne] Show me?
- I don't want to make this
runny, I want this to be thick.
So can you see how beautiful
and creamy it is, Suzanne?
- [Suzanne] Yes, it is.
- [Vincenzo] See that, it's now thick.
This is what we're gonna,
this is what is going to
make the cream for our cacio e pepe, okay?
So, now the pasta is ready,
it's been eight minutes,
and what I'm going to do is switch off.
I need to keep the water in there so
I'm not going to throw the
water away, Suzanne, okay?
So it is still very al dente,
can you see it from the
camera, how al dente it is?
- [Suzanne] Well you can kind of see that
it's that little bit harder, yeah.
- [Vincenzo] So put the pasta there.
We're gonna put a nice,
full spoon of water,
and now it's important for
us to mix it properly, okay?
- [Suzanne] Right, so you
mix that pepper through
before you put the cheese in?
- That's right, that's right.
It's a bit too dry, see?
I need to add a little bit more water.
Because I kind of wanna cook
the pasta in there, you know?
See, now the pasta will cook, see?
So what did we say, the
pasta takes 12 minutes,
it's been nine minutes in the water,
and now we're gonna cook it
for three more minutes in here.
But I already can see,
I already can feel it,
that the pasta is becoming softer.
Look how beautiful it is.
So see I am mixing the
pepper and at this point,
if you like, see the pepper there?
Can you see the pepper in the pasta?
See that?
- [Suzanne] Oh yeah!
- [Vincenzo] At this point,
who don't you add more?
Let's add more pepper...
fresh pepper.
We're gonna add more at the end too.
And again, you need to keep doing this,
this technique is called risottare,
it's like when you make a risotto.
But instead of making
risotto, we're cooking pasta,
using the same technique of risotto.
You know when you make risotto,
you have to keep stirring?
That what we're doing right now.
- [Suzanne] Right, okay.
- We are stirring--
- [Suzanne] So it's important to mix.
- Very important to mix,
very, very, very important.
And if you feel like it's a bit dry,
like at the moment I feel like there is
not enough water there,
you add a little bit more.
Okay, because don't forget we are
cooking the pasta for three more minutes.
- [Suzanne] And is the reason
that you also put it in there
so that it infuses with
all that peppery goodness?
- [Vincenzo] Oh yeah, oh
yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah.
- [Suzanne] 'cause obviously,
you don't want to put the pepper
into that big pot of water.
- [Vincenzo] No, that would be a waste.
Probably would lose all
the flavors in there.
But see?
I mean, I can feel the
pasta being so much softer.
And I think we got one
more minute to go, right?
So, it's evaporating pretty fast.
Thirty seconds to go.
Keep mixing, keep mixing.
And now I show you how to make the cream
for the cacio e pepe, which
this is what is going to
make your cacio e pepe perfect.
So, switch off the pan.
The pan is off.
You want to put the cheese
inside when the fire is off,
okay, no fire.
Here is the cheese, and
I'm gonna put it inside.
All in.
And look what's happening right now, okay?
The pasta water is gonna
turn this into cream.
What you don't want from the cacio e pepe,
is to get the cheese tutte filante,
like you don't want to see
strings of cheese, eh Suzanne?
- [Suzanne] Right, so it has to melt?
- [Vincenzo] It all has to melt.
I wanna make sure everything melts.
- [Suzanne] But you turned
the heat off, didn't you,
so you're just using the hot pan.
- [Vincenzo] The heat must be off, yes.
- [Suzanne] 'cause otherwise
it would cook the cheese.
- [Vincenzo] That's right,
that's right, that's right.
Beautiful, look at that.
Now, it is important... don't forget that
the cheese eventually will
become harder, you know,
so look, you need to do this right now.
It's important you make your pasta jump.
Oh my god, this is super,
super, super creamy.
Come and have a look, look
how creamy this pasta is.
Look how creamy this cacio e pepe is.
See, you got beautiful pepper over there,
you got creaminess...
- [Suzanne] It's like
raining pecorino and pepper.
- [Vincenzo] (laughing)
raining pecorino, I love that.
Look at that, look how
fantastic this dish is.
Look, that's the cream that you get, see?
- [Suzanne] That's the smell I want!
- [Vincenzo] Real cream, just made with
water, pecorino, and love.
- [Suzanne] Why did anyone even start
using cream in the first place?
- [Vincenzo] I have no
idea, I really have no idea.
- [Suzanne] I mean, it's so quick
for you to get this beautiful effect.
- [Vincenzo] Oh yeah.
- [Suzanne] Why do people...
- You know what Suzanne, I
can't even wait to serve it.
I'm gonna have a little bit right now.
- [Suzanne] Really?
- Yeah, I can't wait.
- [Suzanne] It's so hot though!
- You know what (laughing)
I'm gonna have it hot,
straight from the pan.
Ready?
Look how beautiful and moist.
Look how beautiful this is.
- [Suzanne] Can I see it before
you put it in your mouth?
- Look at that!
Look how fantastic this is, huh?
Do you have a fork?
- [Suzanne] No.
- Oh, cacio e pepe.
- [Suzanne] Whoops, bit hot?
- Yum!
(slurping) yum.
Now we serve it, ready?
I mean this is a pasta you
have to eat straight away,
Suzanne, there's no time
for presentation, all right?
(Suzanne laughing)
Right, Suzanne?
Am I right?
- [Suzanne] I guess so.
- So what do we do?
We just eat it.
Straight away.
Suzanne, more pecorino cheese?
- [Suzanne] Um, what about pepper?
- More pecorino, more pepper,
and... (speaks Italian)
Vincenzo's plate, the perfect
cacio e pepe, for you.
(bright music)
