Monday, February 2

Cacio e Pepe

Don't like cooking out of a book? List in hand, scouring the markets for fancy ingredients? Dirtying every damn pot in the house? Turning out dinner after two hours in the kitchen only to hear "what is that?!?!"

Me either. As far as I'm concerned, hoity toity gourmet cooking can suck it.

Here's my summary of a no nonsense gourmet meal (because of the fancy-ass Italian name, of course):


Cacio e Pepe

Ingredients:
pasta
olive oil
grated Parmesan cheese
pepper

1. Cook the pasta "al dente" which means make sure there is something left "to bite" when it's done. Don't leave it boiling and go surf the web.
2. Strain it (duh).
3. Put it in a big fancy bowl.
4. Pour some extra virgin olive oil on it...don't drowned it... just enough to keep it from sticking.
5. Mix in the cheese. As much or as little as you want... for 4 servings I usually use a cup.
6. Pepper to taste. If you want your kids to eat it (without screaming), wait and pepper individual dishes as desired.


DONE! Takes, what, 20 minutes? If you want to be all industrious, you can even fix a salad while the pasta is cooking. Won't win you any points with the punks though.

8 comments:

  1. Sounds like my kinda cookin'!

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  2. What about pasta aglio e olio? Also easy and delicious.

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  3. Yes! Aglio e olio (garlic and oil) is also easy... instead of cheese and pepper, you prepare thin slices of garlic (2-3 cloves) by sauteing them in the oil that will be used to coat the pasta until the garlic is lightly toasted. When the pasta is done just toss with the garlic-y oil... perfect for when the punks have eaten all the cheese in the house.

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  4. Anonymous12:18 PM

    What's for dinner tonight?...Cacio e Pepe. Thanks for making it easy for me to look good :)

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  5. Heh. This is what I had for lunch today, only I threw in a few pieces of broccoli and some pea pods for crunch. Yum.

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  6. Lisa, You're welcome!

    And yum!... I miss me some pea pods. It's so nice to see you back derfina!

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...and you may ask yourself, well...how did I get here?