cacio, pepe, cantucci, massaggio.

Ieri sera hebben wij

My mind is a funny one when it comes to language. It seems like it shouldn't be, but it is.

In other news....RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. Or fire up the grill.

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Last night we had a leetle deener down at Andy and Valentina's, and we were introduced to a "real Roman peasant dish" made by a real Genovese peasant (and yet, even though she initiated it, V. began to chafe at this categorization after an hour or two of being referred to as "that peasant" or "hey peasant").

She made cacio e pepe: pasta, pecorino Romano which has been melted via pasta water, and lots of freshly ground black pepper. There are already scads of blogposts out there about this, so I won't say much other than: this is one of those dishes that, for better or worse, makes you acutely aware of the quality of your spices, in this case your black peppercorns. It's vital that your black pepper is good and fresh (not just freshly ground), otherwise you miss an entire dimension of spice.

Or worse, you realize that the black pepper you've been using for weeks or months is rather vile and vaguely reminiscent of horse stables. This didn't happen to us tonight, but tonight's spotlight on black pepper reminded me of some peppercorns we had earlier this year that were "rustic-flavored" in the extreme.

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cacio e pepe.

pasta

pecorino

olive oil

black pepper

While boiling pasta water, grate "enough" pecorino into a bowl (eh...sorry I can't be more specific). After water boils, add pasta, and then after a couple of minutes steal a couple of spoonfuls of the pasta water and add it to the bowl of grated cheese, melting the cheese. Also add a shot of olive oil. You're trying to make something that's a little less thick than a paste and is not as thin as a broth, so keep adding pasta water spoonful by spoonful until you get to this stage, then add an appropriate amount of black pepper (you'll be adding more black pepper to the plated dish, so don't overdo it at this stage). When the pasta is al dente, drain it and add to the bowl with the pecorino sauce in it. Stir to combine, maybe adding another shot of olive oil for moisture if necessary.

Serve in bowls topped with grated pecorino and freshly ground black pepper. Bread and salad would be perfect accompaniments.

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Still to Come: Mara's cantucci, Valentina's treatment of my stressed-out right arm, and the subtleties of the word cacio.

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Oh No: I finally tried StumbleUpon. It's pretty good, in that destroy-your-free-time kind of way.

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