Originally, it was to have been a bone-in, dry-aged prime ribeye I bought from DeBragga, but then I thought: Gee, that’s kind of a heavy meal, and besides I crave pasta, 24/7.
I had no idea how easy it is to make a good cacio e pepe.
Batali has a recipe in one of his cookbooks. Boil salted water. While water is boiling, heat up a lot of freshly cracked black pepper in a pot. Add six tablespoons of good olive oil. Add six tablespoons of butter. When butter melts, turn off heat. When water boils, add linguine and cook until al dente. Add 1/4 cup good, freshly grated parmigiano and 1/4 cup good, freshly grated pecorino to the butter-oil pepper. Add linguine to the oil-butter-cheese sauce. Toss. Add a little pasta water if necessary. Serve hot.
No wonder this dish shows up at about $18 a pop all over the world. Talk about great margins!
And? And it’s crazy delicious, perfect before the big, Thanksgiving blow out.