Cacio e Pepe

Ingredients

• 8 oz spaghetti or tonnarelli
• 1½ cups pecorino romano, FINELY grated (parmesan in a pinch, Rome forgives slowly)
• 2 tsp black peppercorns, toasted and coarsely crushed
• That's it. Salt for the water. Courage.

Method

1. Cook the pasta in LESS water than usual — a starchier pasta water is your emulsifier, and this dish is all emulsion.
2. Toast the crushed pepper in the dry pan until fragrant; add a ladle of pasta water and let it bubble.
3. Make the paste: whisk the grated cheese with a few tablespoons of warm (NOT boiling) pasta water into a thick cream. Heat control is everything — hot cheese clumps, warm cheese flows.
4. Drag the pasta into the pepper pan a minute early with more pasta water; toss.
5. OFF the heat, add the cheese cream and toss relentlessly until a glossy sauce grips every strand. No cream, no butter — just physics and pecorino. Rome's three-ingredient exam; you just passed.