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.