Alfredo e pepe
What to cook when you just
Hopefully you haven’t noticed, but for the past two months, I’ve been knee-deep in a project that has me spinny busy. Cooking, cleaning, and grocery-shopping starts before 6 AM and stops at [redacted]. Rinse, wash, repeat. This pace doesn’t leave time for idea marination, endless tinkering, and “what if…?”, so every time I start on an idea for this newsletter, it gets abandoned prematurely. It might have potential, but my patience and attention can’t bring it to life right now.
I really apologize for this (I’ll be back in action next month!), but the good news is this crunch forces me to cut to the chase: What is the fastest, smoothest way to a good dinner? Sometimes (only sometimes) I like this pressure because it usually leads to the recipes that we need most: No risk, all rewards.
The kale thing that maybe has butter beans or breadcrumbs or both and is a braise or more of a roast for bites of kale chips—spread out on a sheet pan?—and maybe uses whole leaves like that Renee Erickson recipe will have to wait. So will the fish with smushy garlic. Twenty cloves? Too many? Not enough? Tomatoes? No? Maybe.
Instead, today is a mash-up of two Italian classics that are actually kind of hard to make, but together they solve each other’s problems. And since Roman pastas are variations of each other anyway (start at pasta alla gricia: add tomato for amatriciana, egg for carbonara, and skip the pork for cacio e pepe), hopefully I’m not upsetting any Italians along the way.
Cacio e pepe is made by emulsifying pasta water with grated cheese and black pepper. It clumps so easily. Alfredo has an image problem. Americans think of it as pasta draped in a cream sauce made of heavy cream and cheese, but the original version is thinner and creamy from an emulsion of butter and grated cheese.
Butter helps cacio e pepe from clumping (and you can sizzle the black pepper in the butter for a spicier sauce), but traditionalists will scoff at adding butter to cacio e pepe. So call it Alfredo e Pepe and we all win!
Alfredo e Pepe
Serves 4 to 6
Salt
1 pound any pasta you have
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper, plus more for serving
1 cup (2 ounces) finely grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
1. Bring a large pot halfway filled with well-salted water to a boil. Add 1 pound any pasta you have and cook until al dente. Scoop out 1 1/2 cups of the pasta water, then drain.
2. Return the pot to the stove over medium. Once dry, add 8 tablespoons unsalted butter. Once melted, add 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper and stir until fragrant, just a minute. Add the pasta and 1 cup (2 ounces) finely grated Parmesan and toss vigorously until the cheese has melted. Add pasta water a few tablespoons at a time until the noodles are coated in sauce (you won’t use all the water). Season to taste with more pepper and Parm.
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Editing and recipe testing: Caroline Lange
Brand design: Linda Huang