For a Kid-Friendly Cacio e Pepe, Just Add Corn
Welcome back to Picky Eaters’ Club, where Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman reveals what she actually cooks for her two kids.
Before we had kids, I implicitly understood the value of having pantry-staple recipes in my repertoire. But it wasn’t until we increased our family’s size that I realized how critical these miracle dishes would become. The instances when my husband and I were too busy or exhausted to cook grew exponentially, and the idea of leisurely simmering a pot of Bolognese while sipping wine on a weeknight became downright laughable.
Cacio e pepe, the three-ingredient Roman dish that could be described as a funky grown-up mac and cheese, should be a slam dunk in the realm of pantry recipes. But upon returning home from a vacation to Rome a few years ago, figuring out how to re-create it was harder than I expected. Whisking hot pasta cooking water into a mixture of grated cheese and black pepper is supposed to form a smooth, glossy sauce—but the cheese always seems to clump up and stick to everything but the noodles. After dozens of unsuccessful attempts, I found a resolution in a virtually foolproof technique from the chef at the restaurant Flavio al Velavevodetto in Rome. Making a paste of cheese and cold water ensures a silky mixture that evenly coats the just-cooked spaghetti every time.
Persuading kids who would rather eat buttered noodles or straight-up macaroni and cheese to try a sharp and peppery pasta was another hurdle. Reducing the black pepper helped, but it was a spur-of-the-moment ingredient that inducted them into the cacio e pepe fan club last summer. Since corn is one of their favorite vegetables, I added quickly blanched kernels to the pasta itself, and this combination hit the dinner jackpot. The sweet corn mellowed out the strong flavors of the sauce just enough that the kids were obsessed with it. And because it has so few ingredients, this adult can’t stop gushing about it either.
Get the recipe:
Corn Cacio e Pepe
Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit
