Spaghetti with Pecorino and black pepper

You will come across this incredibly simple dish – cacio e pepe – on restaurant menus all over Rome. Its success lies in the Pecorino being of the highest quality, cooking the pasta to perfection, and getting the consistency of the sauce (which is something like a beurre blanc) just right.

SERVES 4

320g medium spaghetti

200g Pecorino Romano, freshly grated

10g freshly, coarsely grated black pepper, plus extra to serve

Salt

Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil, add the spaghetti and cook, stirring from time to time, until al dente (tender but firm to the bite). Drain immediately, reserving about a cupful of the cooking water, and return the spaghetti to the pan, adding about 50ml of the reserved water.

Shower in the grated Pecorino, stirring with a wooden spoon as you do so, to create a creamy sauce, adding a little more cooking water if necessary. Add the pepper and toss briefly to mix.

Swirl a quarter of the spaghetti around a fork, then arrange in a tall mound in the middle of a warmed deep plate. Repeat with the remaining spaghetti for the other 3 warmed bowls, then drizzle the sauce left in the pan over each mound. Sprinkle with a little more pepper and serve at once.