Food with Passion: Pasta Amore – ‘Cacio E Pepe’

This is a delicious and incredibly simple recipe from clodagh mckenna’s  award winning cookbook ‘clodagh’s weeknight kitchen’ which she has lovingly named ‘pasta Amore’.  it’s a traditional italian dish called ‘cacio e pepe’ which translates to cheese and black pepper.

This is fantastic mid-week supper to cook when you are tired and hungry and want a yummy supper in minutes.

To be honest it’s so easy you don’t even have to think about what you are doing.

The recipe caters for four people but if you are cooking for less just adjust the measurements for the ingredients for the number of people you are cooking for.

The two cheeses give a lovely silky pasta  sauce and while it needs no variations or additional ingredients i like to adorn with a scattering of fresh parsley and on occasion should fried off leftover bacon cut into cubes for extra flavour!

Ingredients: 

• 500g of pasta either spaghetti or linguine
• 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 200g parmesan cheese finely grated
• 100g pecorino cheese finely grated
• 100g leftover bacon cut into cubes (optional) 1 teaspoon of sea salt

Method

1. place a large saucepan of water over a high heat and bring to a boil. once it reaches boiling point add in the sea salt.
2. cook for 10 minutes or as per the instructions on the packet, stir occasionally to ensure the pasta strands don’t stick together.
3. once the pasta is cooked reserve cup of pasta cooking water and drain the pasta and set aside.
4. Then melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large frying pan on a medium heat and add the cracked black pepper an swirl the pan around for a about a minute until the pepper is toasted.
5. meanwhile, if using the leftover bacon, cut into cubes and fry off until nice and crispy and set aside until you are ready to serve.
6. Add half of the reserved pasta cooking water to the pan and bring to a simmer. Then stir in the pasta and the remaining butter and reduce the heat to low.
7. Add the parmesan cheese stirring through until melted then remove from the heat add in the pecorino cheese stirring until the cheese melts and coats the pasta nicely.
8. Transfer to your serving bowl and top with more grated cheese and some fresh basil; serve immediately and enjoy!

i’ve mentioned a number of times; since i started writing my blog here, my love for italian food and cooking and this is one of those authentic italian recipes that uses a few store cupboard ingredients and from cupboard to plate you can have a delicious supper in just 15 minutes!

now that’s my kind recipe! i made this earlier this week for my brother who told me he’d seen a chef make it on Tv.

he was delighted when i told him i had a recipe i made before and did he devour it when i made it for him.

Simple, classic and delicious – great mid-week supper that uses only a handful of ingredients!