Fall is upon us and cold weather means comfort food at its finest! This Caccio E Peppe pasta is one of my absolute favorite recipes, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t share it with you! My super simple, heavenly sauce is made of butter (butter makes everything better ya’ll) garlic and peppery deliciousness.
Since this recipe is so simple, you won’t be substituting any ingredients but I need to stress the importance of using quality ingredients.
- Parmesan—Make sure to use freshly grated Parmesan cheese, the flavor and freshness will add so much more richness to your dish.
- Fresh cracked pepper is paramount!!!
- Garlic—Those remnants of garlic skins and chunks leftover from crushing, don’t waste them, I mince mine up and add it all in with the rest of the sauce. If you don’t have a garlic crusher, you can mince it up really fine with your knife. I don’t recommend using garlic powder as a substitute in this recipe, your finished dish won’t taste the same.
- Parsley—You can use fresh or dried in this dish. Whenever I have fresh readily available I use it, but dried works just as well in a pinch.
Let's talk pasta 101 before we put the cart before the horse! If you follow these steps you’ll have perfect pasta every time.
- Big pot with lots of water
- Salt well, now isn’t the time to skimp on the salt, add 2-3 heaping TBSP for 1 pound of pasta
- Bring water to a rolling boil before adding the pasta
- Cook pasta per the directions on the box to desired likeness. I like my spaghetti Al Dente, 8-10 mins on average, other pastas have different cooking times. Make sure to check the pasta around 8 minutes to avoid overcooking
- Never, EVER, rinse the pasta. If you do, we can’t be friends, since you just washed away hundreds of years in Italian tradition, on lessons why starch is so necessary if you want your sauce to stick to the noodles!!!
Now let’s get into the good stuff cause this velvety, smooth, delicious dish is calling your name and it’s best served immediately.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 Sticks Salted Butter
- 3 TBSP Olive Oil
- 4-5 Garlic Cloves Minced or Crushed
- 1 Pound Box of Spaghetti
- 1 Cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
- 1/4 Cup Minced Fresh Parsley OR 2 TBSP Dried Parsley
- 1 and 1/2 Cups of Reserved Pasta Water—Don’t skip this step
- 1 TSP Cracked Black Pepper
- Salt and Pepper to Taste
Instructions
- Bring large pot of water to a boil, add 2-3 heaping TBSP of salt and cook pasta according to directions on the box. Reserve 1 and 1/2 cups of the pasta water 5-6 minutes into cooking.
- Meanwhile, heat butter and olive oil in a large pan. Once it’s melted set temp to lowest setting so you don’t burn the butter.
- Add the crushed garlic to the butter mixture and let it hang out, it will slowly brown and flavor the butter.
- Once pasta has been cooking for approximately 5 minutes, remove 1 and 1/2 cups of water from the pot.
- Turn your butter mixture up to high. Add the pasta water to your pan. The butter garlic mixture will bubble in a bit of a slurry. Stir continuously. Add 1/4 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of cracked black pepper to your sauce mixture. The water will start to reduce and you will notice your sauce start to turn velvety smooth.
- Drain your pasta once cooked and add it to sauce pan. Add 1 cup of Parmesan, Parsley and more cracked black pepper to the pasta. Toss in the sauce making sure the cheese and sauce coats all the noodles. (Tip: Adding Parmesan cheese to any pasta before tossing it in the sauce will only help it stick to your noodles better. Plus... flavor time ya'll)
- Serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan, parsley and pepper
- Bon Appetit!
Nutrition Information: Yield 5
Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 650 Total Fat: 36.6g
Cholesterol: 163 mg
Sodium 342 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 31.1g
Protein: 16g
Nutritional information is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator.
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