Pici cacio e pepe

A traditional pasta from the south of Tuscany, I Pici is a "poor"dish for the simplicity of the ingredients, the dough is composed only of water, flour and salt.

If you want to make them as in Siena you should try I pici cacio e pepe, again the ingredients of the sauce are as humble as the ingredients for the pasta dough

FOR THE PASTA

Ingredients (Serving 4 - 5)

500 gr flour "0"

300 ml warm water 2 Table spoon of E.V.O

1 pinch of salt.

Method

First, place the flour on a wood board and with the help of your finger tips create space in the center for your the wet ingredients. add the warm water, the oil and the salt.

Whisk all together with a fork without disturbing the flour.

Gently incorporate the flour a little at a time.

Once you have incorporated all of the ingredients, use a scraper to blend the mixture very well, at this point you should not use your hands, just the fork or the scraper.

After the wet and dry ingredients have been well combined, start kneading very gentle from 10 to 15 minutes, do it till the mixture gets smooth, then bring the mixture together with your hands to form a ball. If the dough is too dry, add some drops of water, if the dough is too wet, add some flour.

cover the dough with a humid towel or film and let it rest for minimum 15 minutes, the longer it rests the better and elastic it gets, you can try to make the pasta dough in the morning let it rest in the fridge and when you are ready to roll the pasta take it out of the fridge and shape it.

Then cut 1/4 of the dough into thin long strips and remember to keep the rest of the dough covered to prevent it from drying out.

On a work surface, roll each strip of dough with your fingers to give it a slightly rounded shape.

Place each pici on a surface with flour and repeat this process with the rest of the pasta dough.

make stripes of 15 cm approximately.

Pici are thick but keep always the same proportion and try to be as uniform as you can.

FOR THE CHEESE SAUCE

250 gr grated Tuscan pecorino cheese

50 gr of butter

Black peppercorns

Method

Take a sauce pan, melt the butter on medium heat, grate some pepper in and combine all together.

While the pici are cooking take some of the cooking water and add it into the pan, the starches of the water will thick the mixture.

Apart, take a medium bowl, add pecorino cheese and some cooking water, just enough to make the cheese melt.

Drain the pici, add them to the the butter based mixture and add some more cooking water

Turn everything on the high temperature for a few minutes in order to give a creamy consistency then remove the pan from the fire and add the cheese mixture, stir vigorously till is creamy,

Serve and grate some more black pepper on top.

Buon apetito