Cacio e Pepe

Method

1. Bring about 1 litre of water to the boil in a small saucepan — deliberately little water, so it turns thick and starchy — and salt it with only 0.5 tsp of fine salt, since the Pecorino is already salty.
2. Crack 1 tsp of black peppercorns coarsely in a mortar and toast them in a dry, wide frying pan over medium heat for about 1 minute, until fragrant. Add 2 tbsp of the boiling water to the pan and let it bubble into a pepper infusion, then set the pan aside off the heat.
3. Grate 55 g of Pecorino Romano as finely as you can — a Microplane is ideal — and keep a little back for the table.
4. Cook 100 g of tonnarelli or spaghetti in the boiling water, stirring often, until 1 minute short of al dente (about 8–9 minutes for dried spaghetti). Before draining, ladle out 150 ml of the cloudy cooking water.