How do I prevent the cheese from clumping in my cacio e pepe sauce?
Samuel, by email
The first thing to note, says Feast’s Italian correspondent Rachel Roddy, is that it’s “so annoying and so common. In fact, a lot of the responsibility lies with recipe writers, because, traditionally, cacio e pepe wasn’t this creamy, emulsified dish that we all make now. It was just cooked spaghetti with cheese on it.”
She continues: “People are so good now at using the pasta cooking water, but that means everything is hotter.” And that right there, she says, is the cause of Samuel’s cheese-clumping plight: “When cheese gets too hot, the solids lose their fat and liquid, and turn into these horrid little blobs.” The line between melted and coagulated is a fine one, too: “It’s probably only a couple of degrees.”
