Cacio e pepe with a head of cabbage in it
Cabbage browned until it is sweet and nearly jammy, folded into the most austere pasta there is.
At a Glance
Story
Do not forget the pasta water, and take more of it than you think. Two full cups. The starch suspended in it is what turns grated cheese and pepper into a sauce instead of a clump, and there is no recovering the dish once it has gone down the drain. If you do forget, a scant half-teaspoon of cornstarch whisked into a cup of water will get you most of the way back.
Ingredients
- 1 lb spaghetti
- 1 head green cabbagecored and thinly sliced
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 ½ tsp black pepperfreshly and coarsely ground
- 1 ½ cups Parmesanfinely grated, plus more to serve
- 1 lemon
- salt
Method
Caroline Chambers arrived at this by having leftover caramelized cabbage in the fridge on a night she was already making cacio e pepe, and doing the obvious thing.
Cacio e pepe is two ingredients and no hiding place. Cabbage browned hard is sweet enough to survive that company, which is more than most vegetables manage.
- Boil the spaghetti in well-salted water until al dente. Two full cups of that water come out before the colander does. Return the pasta to the pot.
- While it cooks, halve the cabbage, cut out the core and slice it thinly.
- Warm the oil in a large skillet over medium-high with the pepper and 1 teaspoon of salt until it sizzles and smells fragrant, about 3 minutes. Cabbage in, tossed with tongs now and then, 7 to 10 minutes, until it is tender and browned at the edges. Off the heat.
- To the drained pasta add 1 cup of the pasta water, half the Parmesan sprinkled all over rather than dumped in a pile, and the juice of half the lemon. Toss hard with tongs for about 2 minutes, until the cheese vanishes into the water.
- The rest of the Parmesan and a little more pasta water, tossing again until a glossy sauce forms, 2 minutes. If the cheese sulks, put the pot back over the faintest flame for a moment. The noodles want to be coated, never dry.
- Fold the cabbage in so every serving gets plenty. More Parmesan and pepper at the table.
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