What's For Dinner #114 - the 1st Quarter Century Edition - January 2025

It was a good recovery from the clump-o-rama last time when my nephew and I made cacio e pepe together over Christmas break :joy:

I made the “sauce” first — grated parm (pre-grated from freezer not fresh-grated bec I haven’t been to the store yet since I got back), water, pepper.

Then boiled the pasta, and added some of the starchy water (after letting it cool slightly) to the sauce, and mixed to form what is essentially a butter-less bechamel.

When the pasta was done, I drained it and let it cool for a few minutes —bec I’m convinced it’s the temp of the pasta that makes the cheese clump. Then transferred pasta to the bowl with the cheese sauce, stirred quickly, and added a bit more warm pasta water when it looked like it might clump, to loosen it up.

I’m convinced that the cornstarch method will be 100% less fussy, so I will try that next time. (I forgot this time.) Also want to try beurre manie as a different tweak.

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This looks beautiful! Great knife skills demonstrated.What type of sausage?

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Thanks! Italian hot sausage was used.

$8.81 a pound here.

Mouthwatering!

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Thank you!

I get mine at the grocery store.

I’m curious about the Lamb and Weston frozen potatoes, and I asked my question over here:

A post was merged into an existing topic: What’s For Dinner #115 - the Dumb Rodent Month Edition - February 2025

That mushroom sauce sounds delicious!

We have McCains in our grocery stores, too. However, the Lamb and Weston are so darned good, I am not interested in trying the McLains.

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: What’s For Dinner #115 - the Dumb Rodent Month Edition - February 2025

Thank you. It wasn’t a particularly saucy dish in that I probz coulda been slightly more generous with the cream, but it was a tasty meal nonetheless :slight_smile: