#cacioepepe

One Skillet Cacio e Pepe | The Practical Kitchen

(or Adult Mac'n Cheese)

Ingredients

Pasta. Choose a shape you like. If it's a long noodle like spaghetti, make a circle with your thumb and forefinger, the amount of noodles that fit in that circle will be enough for you. If it's a short noodle like macaroni, roughly half a cup is plenty.

1/4 cup parmesan cheese. If you don't like parmesan, pick something else, I don't care.

Two tablespoons of black pepper.

Seven slices of bacon as a non-kosher, non-vegetarian option

Five cloves of garlic.

One shallot.

That's it, that's all you need

Directions

If using bacon, slice it 1/2 inch pieces. About the length from the tip of your finger to the first knuckle.

Slice the garlic as thin as you can.

Rough chop the shallot, but do it as small as you can.

Bring the water to a hard rolling boil. Throw your pasta in

Make sure to boil your pasta in lots of water. A lot of water. Too much water. Also, also, DON'T, DO NOT put salt, or oil, or any of that dumb stuff in your pasta water. Just water. Stir semi-regularly to prevent the noodles from sticking.

While your pasta is boiling; In a medium sauce pan, on medium heat, start cooking your bacon. No oil or butter needed, just render the fat

If you're not using bacon, on medium heat, start the pan with garlic and shallot. (What this means is that you let your pan get hot first before putting the oil/butter in. You know your pan is hot enough when the oil starts roiling around as soon as you add it. If you're not used to this, use a high heat oil like safflower, sunflower, or canola. Add the garlic and shallot right away).

Once the bacon is half cooked, add the garlic and shallot.

When the garlic starts getting golden, toss in the pepper, add salt to taste, stir your pan around to mix everything.

If things are starting to stick to the bottom of your pan, that's a wonderful thing, that's where all the flavour is. Ladle in a little bit of the pasta water for deglazing. It'll make everything sizzle so be careful; use a spatula to scrape everything off the bottom of the pan back in to your sauce.

You'll know your pasta is cooked when there's no crunch left but it's still chewy. Most packaged pasta tells you to cook it for too long. Five to seven minutes should be enough.

If your pasta is cooked by the time your sauce is done, strain it out, save the water, and add the pasta while it's still hot to your sauce. If the sauce is ready first, turn it down to the lowest heat setting while waiting for your pasta. Make sure to keep stirring the pan occasionally, and deglazing as needed.

Once the pasta is added, ladle in some more pasta water -- the starch in the water will lend itself to a beautiful, creamy sauce -- turn the heat all the way up. Toss, toss, toss.

Add all your cheese, make sure it hits the hot noodles, NOT the bottom of the pan, otherwise all hope is lost. TOSS TOSS TOSS.

Keep tossing or stirring semi regularly until the liquid is reduced enough that there's just enough to coat the noodles and a little bit left over in the bottom of the pan.

If you've done everything right, the pasta will be coated in a peppery, cheesy, creamy-smooth sauce.