Roma - Cacio e Pepe

Traditionally, Romans make a square shaped spaghetti called Tonarelli to go with Cacio e Pepe and after todays class

Tones & I are now two expert's !!!!!!!! 😜  😂 

Cool pasta guitar to give you square pasta

Set aside the world’s best made Tonarelli! 

Then we can work on making the Cacio e Pepe. 

First you will need 5 peppercorns per person.

Find a sous chef to be the trusty pepper crusher.

(Never use fine ground pepper as it burns)

Perfect bashing Tones!

Heat the pepper in a pan until toasty 

(set aside 1/2 the pepper for later) 

and then add a label or two of hot water to the remaining peppers in the pan.

Prior to cooking the pepper have your Pecorino Romano 

(a semi hard sheep cheese, younger and brighter than Parmesan Cheese) 

grated … not micro planed into a bowl where you will 

then add the other 1/2 of the toasted pepper. 

So if you are cooking for 4 people it will be 

100 grams, 1 cup Pecorino Romano

400 grams of the amazingly made pasta!

20 peppercorn's

Cook the “fresh pasta” for 1 minute only in salty water

(If using shop bought dried paste refer to the cooking time on the packaging)

Then add the cooked pasta (don't drain) with some of  the pasta water to the pepper in the hot pan, crank up the heat and stir. Adding a bit by bit more hot pasta water to keep it moist not wet to create a creaminess coating to the pasta.

This will take a further few minuets as the “fresh pasta” is still cooking (dried pasta a bit less time in the fry pan as it needs to be more cooked in the water process).

Check by eating a piece of the pasta to see if it is al dente!

Once the pasta is to your liking turn off the heat add in the grated Pecorino and remaining pepper coat the pasta leave 1 minute and serve immediately.

So there you have it … 

the BEST Cacio e Pepe 

Sandy has ever had.

www.cookingclassesinrome.com

 Today was our cooking class in Roma with Chef Andrea who we have cooked with 3 times in the past 13 years. He is such a nice guy and the classes are created for all to enjoy from the chefs down to the likes of me.

Our walk to the class is over the Tiber river on Pont Garibaldi with St Peters in the back ground back into the 

Jewish quarter of Trastevere.

Today it is not only Sandy and I that are doing the class we are bring a friend, Tony … from Newcastle Australian.

Tony and his beautiful wife arrived into Rome the very same day we did … not planed! Cool having Aussie friends in Rome. We all caught up for diner the other night and the class today with just Tony so he I can work on our pasta making technics.

Some of the beautiful cobble stone alleyways in Trastevere

Me with my two chefs.

Men at work!

Carbonara & Cacio e Pepe

 Carbonara & Cacio e Pepe are two of the “big four” Roman pasta dishes in Rome.

So apparently, Sandy and I must have some Roman DNA in us somewhere as Sandy is a big fan of the Cacio e Pepe and I the Carbonara.

The other two pasta dishes of the Roman “big four” are the Amatriciana and Gricia.

But … like all Italians, the Romans are fiercely connected to their Lazio food region, it’s food, where and how far it comes from as well as the correct paring of the right pasta shape to the right pasta sauce.

So please please please don’t shoot the messenger, as whatever I say on this blog is about information that I have been told by the local Romans or we have enjoyed in a Roman Osteria. But still there will be a very heated “Roman/Italian conversation” with loads of hand gestures about, ohh that is so nooooo … or that is sooooo correct re the pasta and paring!

So the other day at Osteria Sonnino just over the Tiber river in Trastevere where Sandy and I both had our own favourite Roman Pasta dishes, remember the ones in those little copper frypans. I’m putting it out there that the Carbonara was the best I had in Roma this trip and the Cacio e Pepe was up there as a very good one for Sandy.

The Carbonara sauce from the other day was “correctly or incorrectly” served with a 4 mm spaghetti (without a hole running through the center), which I’m told is the most common pasta that a Roman at home or in a restaurant would use for the dish, but also, one can use Bacatini (while still resembling a spaghetti, just a tad thicker at 5mm but with a hole running through the center) or a Rigatoni (a 30 mm-ish long round tube pasta with a 8 mm-ish large hole), for me, I just don’t think that the Rigatoni is the right pasta choose for Carbonara!

Other information we gleaned while out and about in Rome this trip is that the golden rule for cooking pasta is 

1, 10, 100

1 liter water

10 grams salt

100 grams pasta

Also that the general rule is “egg pasta” goes with non protein based pasta sauce.

(But don't tell that to a northern Italian!)

While “no egg pasta” goes with a protein based sauce.

That a typical 5 course Italian meal would start with a anti pasta or a soup, then a no egg pasta dish followed with a meat dish, vegetables or salad and finally a desert.

While a egg pasta served with a meat sauce would be considered as a full meal without the need for any other courses.

Carbonara is a simple dish, but a dish that can bring some people undone as if not done correctly it can be a very disappointing blar dish. 

The cooking sin some other cultures make is to cook Carbonara with cream!!!! and that is a VERY BIG ITALIAN NO. 

Today the simple combination of guanciale, a cured pork jowl which was not to fatty cooked in the fry pan and then with the heat turned off drop in the cooked pasta and then the whipped egg and parmesan cheese mix allowing the residual pan heat and the fats from the guanciale to cook the egg and melt the parmesan cheese, some pasta water to loosen and create a little moisture and it was 

just perfect for me.

The trick to Carbonara which we learnt several years ago and today was how it was served was to make sure that the egg to cheese ratio is correct, not to runny or not to claggie … so when whipped together, to the right consistency and turned upside down the mixture wont fall out of the whipping bowl.

Pure and simple Carbonara

And as for the Cacio e Pepe we are cooking tomorrow with our friend Andrea at our Cooking in Roma cooking class.

Roma - Morning Walk

 So this morning before it got too hot in Rome I decided that I needed to tick off a few of the big ticket locations again.

Starting point is * at the bottom left of the map being our Room in Roma. My first picture just around the corner and is not the Colosseum but it looked like it!

Then there was the back side of the Victor Emmanuel 2 monument 

ohh and a bit of his front side!

And then I got a a little bit lost so here is the other side.

 Sorry not front picture 

Past loads of old stuff just laying on the ground.

Some great crazy paving from a really really long time ago.

Now here is the real Colosseum and what a great sight to see so early in morning “without too many people”

A hike up the hill to see the Trevi Fountain and make a quick wish …

Some cross fit training up and down the Spanish Steps

A morning walk without the Pantheon well that

wound not be a morning walk in Roma!

Over the Tiber river on the Sant’angelo bridge with its line up of amazing statues.

to see the … Castel of Sant’angelo

Gone off the tourist map to walk up see Basilica di San Pietro, you can’t come to Rome and not come here thats for sure.

Back out to finish my walk along the Tiber river

So after 14,452 steps I think I deserve pasta again for lunch today!

Roma - Streets & Lunch

 The raw grit of Roma with just so much history,

EVERYWHERE.

The cobble stone streets is a bit of a challenge to walk on and even in a car you get a bit of a rough ride.

This is the alleyway in-front of where we are staying with its graffiti art.

Had our first roman pasta lunch today just over the Ponte Garibaldi with Saint Peter’s off in the distance.

Cute little Osteria

Two very typical Roman pasta’s of Carbonara in the front and Sandy had the Cacio e Pepe.

 Simple done so well.

Roma - Our room

The view from our room is into a central courtyard, not so pretty but a great place to join in with the locals and have some time to attend to the domestic duties.

Our deck is not so big but at least we have one, as in Roma that is not always guaranteed.

The cute little dried breads in a packet is our breakfast provisions and is somewhat minimal, but it is already in our room for us to have what ever time we want!

So with a bit of imagination and soft filters on the camera it is looking very appetising.

And with some hazels nuts from the farm added to the Nutella it is breakfast fit for a Roman King and his beautiful Queen.