Avoiding clumps in cacio e pepe?

garage_greg

I've been trying to make a very basic three-ingredient cacio e pepe over the last few days and have found it difficult to create a smooth, creamy sauce. I'm using only two cups of microplane-grated pecorino romano cheese, a handful of spaghetti, and crushed black pepper. Salt in the pasta water, too, of course. I've tried it two ways and gotten varying results: Cooking the pasta shallow water in a wide pan to concentrate the starch. Then, drain,...

Originally asked by Alex Reinking on Stack Exchange (cooking) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

Achieving a creamy sauce for cacio e pepe, and dishes like it (carbonara comes to mind) is not as straight forward as some would have you think. Fortunately, while we strive for the perfect emulsification, those attempts that don't exactly work are still delicious. Here are some tips: (1) Make sure your cheese is grated as finely as possible, and that it is at room temperature or warmer. A microplane is perfect. (2) The water you add can't be too hot. Scoop some pasta water out halfway through the cooking process, allow it to cool, and use that to add later. (3) Drain pasta and allow to cool a minute before dressing. (4) Some find that combining pasta and cheese in a cool pan is better (so...

Full answer by moscafj: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/90464 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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