Everytime I try to make Cacio e Pepe, Pasta alla Gricia or any pasta dish that involves emulsifying cheese (that isn't carbonara) this happens. I'm at a loss, as soon as my cheese touches any sort of warm starchy water it clumps up.
by Darrens_Coconut
9 Comments
What kind of cheese is this? Is it pre-grated or the powdery bottle stuff?
I find that emulsifying works best when you use a block of cheese and grate it yourself.
Microplane and more water than you think, removed from heat with vigorous stirring/tossing, while gradually adding cheese works for me almost all of the time. For whatever reason, after probably a dozen successful batches, the last one I made clumped like this.
From my experience, this happens with too much heat and its really really hard to “come back from.”
Whats your method like? I do all my mixing in the bowl now, or sometimes a warmed up mixing bowl if I’m doing multiple portions. It helps reduce any uncertainty about how hot the pan is. I give the pasta a toss in whatever fat I’m using in the sauce as well. For cacio e pepe, its controversial, but I use a small amount of butter to help the process, and treat it like pasta al burro e parmigiana. Definitely must echo the others in saying pre grated doesn’t work nearly as well.
Too much heat.
Here is something for you to try.
Combine the pecorino and pepper in a SEPARATE STEEL mixing bowl. Cook your pasta in a very very small amount of water – the minimum amount needed so it concentrated the starch.
About 2/3 of the way through cooking your pasta, remove 3 ladles or so of the pasta water and put it in yet another SEPARATE cup. Allow that water to cool for a minute or two so that you have slightly cooled, extremely starchy water in your cup.
Once slightly cooled, add the cooled water to your pecorino and pepper bowl, adding only a small amount at a time and stirring. Yiu want to get it into a paste. It should not be liquid.
Once it is a paste, add your now finished pasta into the bowl and stir like crazy. Add more pasta water to get the right creamy consistency as you go. Be sure to use all the cooled stuff first before you use any hot water.
The key really is to use as little water as possible and to let the pasta water cool before throwing it into your cheese and pepper mix.
For cacio e pepe, watch this video. It’s in Italian but easy to understand I think https://youtube.com/shorts/JvYtdvKI1EY?si=V1rTuHtH8z3OekLt
It’s cheating and totally not necessary but tiny tiny amount of sodium citrate
I would add in an equal amount of vegetable oil and beat it with a hand mixer.
Clumping is a clear indication the proteins and fat have split, caused by the rapid temperature changes with the water.
Source your starch another way, namely lightly dust the grated cheese with corn flour or corn starch. This will add stability and prevent it from splitting. When adding the cheese to the water, ensure the water is just warm enough to melt the cheese, no hotter. Stir until melted but don’t over stir or that will also cause splitting.
I guarantee if you try this it will be nice and silky.
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Edit: This video doesn’t use the cornflour but it’s pretty flawless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjFCVc0XPQo
If you want a bulletproof way then go the restaurant route and make a “pre mix” of cacio e Pepe. Put the cheese into a blender with water you mixed with cornstarch and then freshly ground black pepper. You get a soft ice cream like consistency and for every portion of cacio e pepe you wanna make you use 2x table spoons of that stuff, put it into a pan and add pasta water to make it into a sauce, then you add your sketti and you’ve got a fast, simple and bullet proof cacio e pepe.