Cacio e Pepe

A few years ago, my family and I spent a summer traveling Europe. Though we were in Rome for only one week, the city stole my heart. I loved the dichotomy between the Roman ruins and the young vibrant culture. And, I especially loved the trattorias filled with homemade pastas, fried artichokes, pizza, and espresso granita. 

Cacio e Pepe, or spaghetti with pecorino and pepper,  is a Roman dish that I became obsessed with, and I pretty much ordered it anytime I saw it on a menu. Despite its humble ingredients, the dish is hard to find here in the US. 

When I am longing for a dinner overlooking the Tiber and the Forum or a warm walk through the Piazza Navona, I will instead reach for this pasta dish. It's quick and easy to pull together, so it's perfect for a weeknight dinner. It will taste almost as good as the pasta I had in Rome, as long as you make sure to follow these basic instructions!

Cacio e Pepe

From Patricia Wells

Serves 4 

3 tablespoons coarse, freshly ground black pepper, preferably Tellicherry peppercorns

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons salted butter

3 tablespoons sea salt

1 lb spaghetti

3/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus extra for garnishing

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Regiiano cheese, plus extra for servicng

Place the pepper in a large skillet over medium heat and toast it, shaking the pan, until fragrant about 30 seconds. 

Add the oil and the butter and stir until the butter is melted. Remove the pan from the heat.  

In a pasta pot, bring 8 quarts of water to a rolling boil over high heat. Add the salt and pasta, stirring to prevent the pasta from sticking. Cook until tender but firm to the bite. Remove the pasta pot from the heat. Drain the pasta, shaking to reserve some of the excess water. Reserve some of the cooking water for the sauce.

Return the skillet to the heat. Add about 4 tablespoons of the pasta water to the oil mixture and stir to blend. Add the pasta and toss until it is evenly coated.

Add the cheeses and toss until the pasta is evenly coated. If the pasta is dry, add more pasta water. Serve immediately with additional grated cheeses.

Back to Basics: Pasta

Yes, I know you think you know how to make pasta. I'm here to tell you that while you probably know the basics, there are quite a few pro tricks that I recently learned that make a HUGE difference.

Pasta is great for so many reasons--it's quick to make, it can feed a crowd, and pleases both vegetarians and meat-lovers. Since it's likely in your weeknight arsenal of meals, why not make sure your pasta is perfect?

The Perfect Way to Cook Pasta

1. Boil Water

I know--you already know how to boil water. Great--just make sure you use at least 6 quarts of water per pound of pasta.

2. Salt your water.

Once the water is boiling, add a lot of salt to the water. Typically, you should add 1/4 cup of salt for every six quarts. The salt will season your pasta so that you are not putting delicious sauce onto bland boiled dough.

3. Cook to al dente.

Literally meaning "to the tooth", al dente is the true Italian way of cooking pasta. Your pasta should have texture and firmness, but is should NOT be crunchy. Typically, packages are pretty good at estimating al dente cooking times, but start checking the pasta two-three minutes before just in case. It's better to check too early, than to check too late!

4. Save the pasta water!

Instead of simply draining your pasta over the sink, letting all of the pasta water go to waste, save two cups of the liquid.  The water has a lot of starch and salt that will help balance out your sauce, no matter whether you made it yourself or you are relying on trusty Trader Joe's.

5. Use a saucepan and tongs.

When it comes to actually combining the pasta, sauce, and pasta water, use a saucepan and tongs. Over medium heat, add in the pasta, sauce, and a splash or two of the pasta water. Then, use your tongs to toss the pasta so it is evenly coated with sauce. The tongs also make serving pasta so much easier.

Top with freshly grated Parmesan, and then your pasta is ready to eat!

Weekend Reading

San Francisco Cooking School jumps on the trendy toast bandwagon with a great April Fool's joke.

Hoping to get my hands on some Andrews & Dunham tea--their Spring Keemun looks amazing.

What I would do for some Blue Bottle iced coffee at my Whole Foods...

La Boulange is now everywhere thanks to Starbucks, and people just want their lemon cake.

The biggest restaurant openings in the Bay. I would love to try Chocolate Blue, Molina, and Lure + Till.

Maybe dreams really do come true? Momofuku is rumored to be heading to DC.

Thread and Paul Lowe of Sweet Paul at Union Market on Sunday.

 Newest addition to my wish list: a dinner party at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Sosh just launched in DC.  Check out the site for great events and activities!

15% of selected dinnerware at Anthropologie.

Chocolate caramel macarons might be my latest culinary challenge, thanks to this recipe from the New York Times.

The Best Banana Bread

Due to the abundance of snow days DC had this winter, I got pretty good at making banana bread. The snow has me longing for warm, tropical island vacations to places like Hawaii. Though I probably will not be going to Hawaii any time soon, this banana bread, with its slightly crispy exterior, will have to do instead.

While sitting at home working on financial models or Powerpoint slides, this bread would be baking in the oven, and my mind would drift to white sand beaches, green luscious hiking trails, and lots and lots of sunshine. This recipe is perfect for those tropical daydreams, since it hails from Maui.

Julia's Best Banana Bread

From Bon Appetit Magazine

Nonstick vegetable oil spray

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup mashed ripe bananas

3/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9x5x3" loaf pan with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

Combine eggs, sugar, banana, and oil together in a large bowl until smooth.

Add dry ingredients to banana mixture and stir until just combined. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth  the top of the batter.

Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf pan comes out clean, 60-70 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack. Let bread cool in pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the inside of the pan. Turn the bread onto the rack and let it cool completely.

Best Resaurant Apps

Every time I walk down 14th St. or Barrack's Row, there are almost always three or four new restaurants that catch my eye. So many restaurants, so little time.

To prioritize my weekend restaurant adventures, I use two apps, Ness and Chef's Feed, that I wanted to share with you all today!

Ness

Basically a better version of Yelp (if you want to be nerdy like me, you can read this economics paper on how Yelp could be improved). This app takes your own personal preferences into account based off of ratings you submit on restaurants to generate suggestions. Ness is almost always spot on.

Unfortunately, Ness is going away this month because it was recently purchased by Open Table. While I am excited to see what Open Table will do with Ness's recommendation algorithm, I am sad that Ness will no longer exist.

In the mean time, you might as well submit your preferences and spend a little bit of time looking through their recommendations while you still can! I'll be using the app to build a list of new restaurants to try. Ness is even letting you export your data, so you can save it for later.

Chef's Feed:

Chef's Feed is a restaurant recommendation app that profiles top chefs around the country (SF, DC, Atlanta, NYC, etc) and asks them what their favorite meal is. In the app, you can see top dishes recommended by some fantastic chefs, and you can filter by cuisine, price point, or location.

I like Chef's Feed because of its focus on dishes, rather than restaurants. Chef's Feed makes sure I don't miss out on the house specialty!  

On Chef's Feed, you can also rate the restaurants you have tried and share your thoughts with friends/followers. I enjoy seeing what new restaurants friends have been to and seeing how their ratings compare with chefs' ratings.

Next time you are looking for a food adventure, whether in your own city or traveling, I hope you reach for Ness or Chef's Feed!