Romano vs Parmesan in Cacio e Pepe?

bake_betty

I've tried making Cacio e Pepe a few times, using a recipe from America's Test Kitchen. In Cacio e Pepe, you boil pasta in a limited amount of water, then mix some of the hot starchy water with grated pecorino Romano cheese. The cheese melts/dissolves in the water to form a cheesy liquid which is poured over the pasta. I've had good luck doing this with Romano, even using domestic cow's milk Romano. But one time I was short on Romano, and tried...

Originally asked by Kenster on Stack Exchange (cooking) (CC BY-SA 3.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

Pecorino Romano is a heavily salted, aged cheese. As a result, it tends not to "melt", just as feta, haloumi, and queso fresco tend not to melt (all are also heavily salted cheeses). Presumably mizithra or ricotta salata would work equally well in the ATK recipe, although they wouldn't taste the same. If you inadvertently purchase a different kind of pecorino (sardo, for example), or even a fairly young pecorino romano, you'll find that you have the "gooey mess" problem with that procedure. Now, a comment: the ATK recipe for Cacio e Pepe sounds bizarre to say the least. The normal way of making Cacio e Pepe is: Cook pasta normally. Drain pasta, leaving it slightly damp. Toss pasta in a...

Full answer by FuzzyChef: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/22773 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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