I picked up the latest book by Amanda Hesser called 'Cooking for Mr. Latte'. If you've never read Amanda I'd like to suggest you run out, not walk, and buy this book. IT is that good.
I had already read her other book 'The cook and the Gardener' about her time spent living as a cook in France and her love/tolerate relationship with the cantancerous French peasant gardener Monsieur Milbert. In that book, each chapter covers a month and has recipes that relate specifically to what is fresh from the garden.
In Cooking for Mr. Latte, each chapter is a tale of an event in the year of the writer's life in dating and wooing Mr. Latte. The recipes for each of these events are at the end of the chapter. The sources for the recipes are diverse culled from her friends, her future Mother In Law, and her grandmother. The book is a comfortable ride through her life and her family and shows an undeniable love affair with food. Good food, fresh food, perfectly cooked food. The recipes in general highlight the best ingredients simply prepared.
For this recipe there are only a few ingredients, it is critical that they all be as good as you can afford and fresh. Don't buy the already grated cheese, buy a nice chunk and do it yourself. And when you get to the rind, save it in foil in a container in the fridge and add it to a soup later to add flavour. And as she says preceeding this recipe
'One is tempted to add more cheese, butter and oil to the recipe. Resist this impulse.'
This would be good with just a salad of bitter greens tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and a bit of champagne vinegar or cider vinegar.
Bavette Cacio e pepe or Linguini with 2 cheeses
Sea Salt or Kosher
1/4 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese
1/4 cup finely grated pecorino-Romano cheese
1/2 pound of DeCecco linguini fini (or similar dried imported)
2 TBS unsalted butter, chilled (Buy Plugra or similar imported butter)
2 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 TBS very course, freshly ground black pepper
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Sprinkle in enough salt so that it tastes seasoned. Meanwhile, grate and mix the cheeses together. When the water boils, add the linguini and cook it for 6 minutes, stirring occasionallu. Near the end of cooking, scoop out about 1/2 cup of cooking water and reserve.
Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Drop in the butter, oil and 1/2 TBS pepper and stir with tongs, lifting and folding the pasta together. Add about 1/4 cup of the pasta water to the pot and place it over medium-high heat. Cook for a minute, stirring to emulsify the sauce, add more of the reserved liquid if required. Test a noodle to see if it's done. It should still be firm in the center, though not as stiff as licorice. Remove from the heat and sprinkle half the cheese over the pasta. Blend once more and then divide the pasta among the plates passing the rest ofthe cheese and the pepper at the table.
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