cacio e pepe Archives | cooks & books

Easiest Instant Pot Cacio e Pepe Recipe

March 27, 2019 by Maria

The easiest Instant Pot cacio e pepe recipe—just 4 ingredients, 10 minutes, and one pot gets you the creamiest, cheesiest Instant Pot cacio e pepe ever!

Are you ready for the simplest fancy recipe you’ve ever made? Meet this Instant Pot cacio e pepe recipe.

I first had cacio e pepe at Rose’s Luxury in DC, when it was named the best new restaurant in the country in 2014 by Bon Appétit. Back then, we didn’t have the Instant Pot, much less the wonder that is this recipe.

We went to Rose’s for the first time a few years ago for my birthday and stood in line in the freezing cold for an hour, waiting for them to open. They don’t take reservations and had just made the best new restaurant list, so we were not the only fools twiddling our gloved thumbs on the sidewalk.

When we finally made it in in, we ordered just about everything, but as usual, my favorite thing was the simplest thing. It was the Cacio e Pepe pasta.

So, of course, I thought about it for the next 11 ½ months. And of course, it was no longer on the menu, so I couldn’t even go back for it. How could I possibly recreate it at home? How had they done it? There was no way to find out. I was stuck.

Then last week I remembered: THE INTERNET! Yes, the internet. Forgot about that thing. And what do you know, just one Google away, Aaron Silverman shared the recipe on Garden & Gun’s website. [Update: G&G has since taken down the recipe.] So, yeah. All my pining was for naught.

After I mastered the stovetop cacio e pepe recipe, I moved on to trying it as a one pot cacio e pepe recipe. And then I HAD to adapt it for the Instant Pot next.

Why I love this Instant Pot cacio e pepe recipe

This Instant Pot cacio e pepe recipe is a minimalist dream, made with just 4 ingredients and ready in under 10 minutes. It’s nothing but pasta, cheese, pepper, and butter. Lots and lots of butter. It is very healthy.

I made it for dinner last week and moaned euphorically with every bite because ohmygod it is so good. So so good.

Things I am told I said to Jarrett in my delirium while eating this Instant Pot cacio e pepe recipe:

“This is the best day of my entire life.”

“It’s so good I could cry. I may cry.”

“Stop eating that. It’s mine.”

So what is the moral of this story, you ask? It’s that simple food is the happiest food.

So get ready to get very happy with this Instant Pot cacio e pepe recipe.

Instant Pot Cacio e Pepe Recipe

This Instant Pot Cacio e Pepe recipe is the easiest, creamiest, 5 ingredient cacio e pepe recipe you could want!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword cacio e pepe, easy cacio e pepe recipe, easy instant pot cacio e pepe, instant pot, instant pot cacio e pepe, instant pot cacio e pepe recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Servings 4 people

Author Maria

Ingredients

1 lb spaghetti (1 package)
1 ½ tsp salt
3 ½ cups water
10 tbsp unsalted butter
3 cups parmesan
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper (You want a medium grind, not too coarse and not powdery.)

Instructions

Pour 3 ½ cups water into the Instant Pot. Break 1 lb. of spaghetti in half then place in the Instant Pot and add 1 ½ teaspoons salt. Add 4 tablespoons of butter, cut into cubes.
Lock the lid and set the pressure release to Sealing. Select the Manual setting and set the timer to 5 minutes.
While the pasta cooks, grate 3 cups parmesan (if not pregrated) and grind 2 teaspoons black pepper into a small bowl. Cut remaining 6 tablespoons butter into cubes.
When the timer goes off, move the pressure release knob to Venting, using a towel to protect your hand. Press cancel to reset the cooking method, then open the pot and select the Saute setting.
Add the parmesan, pepper, and remaining butter. Allow to cook for several minutes until sauce has thickened and coated the spaghetti. Taste and add more salt and pepper to taste.
Serve warm, topped with an extra sprinkle of parmesan and black pepper.

Want another ridiculously easy pasta recipe? This is one of my favorites:

One-pot harissa bolognese

Cheers!

Read, Eat, Drink–Weekend Roundup

January 9, 2015 by Maria

Read:

Ebooks. It’s hard to believe that the e-book as we know it didn’t exist until 7 years ago. As Jason Matthews noted in Ebooks: What a Long Strange Trip on The Book Designer, Amazon didn’t launch the Kindle (and therefore the e-book market as we now know it) until 2007.

I still vividly remember sitting in on an editorial meeting at Simon & Schuster in 2009 and hearing the caution in the voices of editors as they discussed this new format. Back then the prognostications were big and bold (ebooks would take over the world and wreck all our lives!), but the numbers were tiny and insignificant. Ebooks were maybe 2-3 percent of the market–not a number anyone could really act on.

Between 2009 and 2012 we saw huge double-digit growth in the e-book market, and though we seem to be past the largest spike in e-book adoption, the market still grew from 23% to 27% of all book sales between 2012 and 2013.

What I wonder most: how will people read another 7 years from now? I don’t think this is an e-book vs. print book debate. I think it’s an e-book vs. print book vs. blogs vs. magazines vs. newspapers vs. online verticals vs. any other format, digital or print, where readers go for words.

As complex as the landscape is, we all want something very simple: to get our authors’ words in front of readers. I think that’s the only certainty we can cling to in these uncertain times.

So here’s hoping 2015 (and beyond!) will bring us even more ways to get writing to readers!

Eat:
Huge milestone alert! I finally, finally, finally (finally!) ate at Rose’s Luxury. It. Was. Incredible.

Which was a bit of a surprise, given that my expectations were sky-high. I’d first read about Rose’s in this article from August’s issue of Bon Appetit, when Andrew Knowlton named it the Best New Restaurant in America in 2014. So yes, I was expecting greatness.

And I am so happy that I was not disappointed. I can easily say it’s the best restaurant I’ve eaten at this year, and that the Pork Sausage, Habanero, and Lychee Salad was one of the best things I’ve eaten, ever.

But my very favorite moment of the night? Digging into the Cacio e Pepe Pasta and being absolutely floored by how something so simple can be so delicious. Granted, I have a soft spot for pasta, always and forever, but this? This was special. I would give all my worldly possessions to be able to know how they did it.

Cacio e Pepe Pasta from Rose’s Luxury. ‘Tis a thing of beauty. Source.

Oh, and there was also a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ice Cream that blew our faces off. There was much moaning and gushing from our table that night!

Drink:
Kicking it over to Jarrett, our resident bartender, for a fun drink recipe:

The holidays are behind us, and you know what that means: taking stock of all the liquor left over from holiday parties. Some bottles you savor, like that glorious bottle of Bulleit Bourbon Uncle Bob gave you as a present. Others make you cringe, like that fifth of vanilla vodka your cousin’s girlfriend brought to New Years.

This year, I decided to come up with a plan for that nasty vanilla vodka once and for all by playing a fun game. It’s called: “figure out how to make a decent cocktail with disgustingly flavored alcohol” (FOHTMADCWDFA for short). Catchy, I know. But, in the end, I actually came up with a pretty good drink – we’ll call it the Apple Pie Cocktail.

Apple Pie Cocktail

• 2 lime slices
• One granny smith apple (for garnish)
• Two leaves of mint
• 3 oz. vanilla vodka
• Ginger ale
• Apple juice (we used honeycrisp apple juice, but regular works)
• Dash of cinnamon

Muddle lime slices and mint leaves in bottom of an old-fashioned glass. Fill glass half way with ice. Add vanilla vodka. Then fill remainder of glass with ginger ale and apple juice (2/3 ginger ale and 1/3 apple juice). Add a dash (around 1/8 teaspoon) of cinnamon. VERY briefly shake in a shaker (but only a shake or two because ginger ale carbonation will make it explode if shaken too much).

Using a paring knife or peeler, cut a strand of the granny smith skin off and add it as garnish. Imbibe and enjoy!

Lemon Pepper Pasta

March 1, 2014 by Maria

This is my very favorite minimalist recipe. It’s a spin on an Italian cacio e pepe recipe, but it’s so much more than the sum of its parts.

It’s also the easiest recipe I have ever made. And one of the most delicious. You’ll be surprised by how these humble ingredients work together to make such a luscious, rewarding pasta. And did I mention that you’ll have dinner on the table in under 10 minutes? This recipe is that perfect mix of insanely easy + crazy delicious + so very affordable that will make it an instant weeknight staple.

As Mario Batali says: “Food, like most things, is best when left to its own simple beauty.”

Lemon Pepper Pasta Recipe
aka cacio e pepe con limone

Serves 4

1 package of spaghetti (I use whole wheat)
Extra virgin olive oil
2 large lemons
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt
Parmesan (ideally Parmigiano Reggiano)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta for 1 minute less than the package indicates. Strain the pasta, return it to the pot, and place over very low heat. Drizzle olive oil over the pasta until thoroughly coated (you’ll need at least a ¼ cup and likely more) then juice the lemons into the pot. Grind a lot of black pepper onto the pasta—you’ll want each strand of spaghetti to have multiple flecks of pepper on it. Sprinkle a hearty pinch of salt and grate as much cheese as you like over the pasta.

Serve onto four plates and top with an extra drizzle of olive oil, another grind of pepper, and more cheese at the table.

Tag: cacio e pepe