Scientists have created the ‘perfect’ recipe for fan-favourite pasta dish & their secret ingredient makes it ‘foolproof’
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SCIENTISTS have created the perfect recipe for well-known pasta dish Cacio e pepe - and you can put it to the test yourself. A small team of physicists discovered that the key to making "flawless" restaurant-quality Cacio e pepe lies in the starchiness of the pasta water.
"Despite its simple ingredient list, achieving the perfect texture and creaminess of the sauce can be challenging," the team wrote in their study. "A true Italian grandmother or a skilled home chef from Rome would never need a scientific recipe for Cacio e pepe, relying instead on instinct and years of experience.
"For everyone else, this guide offers a practical way to master the dish.". The recipe includes just pasta (typically spaghetti), pecorino cheese, pepper and pasta water. If the starch content of the water is less than 1% of the cheese weight, the sauce can separate or end up clumpy.
Without the right combination of hot, pasta water - which holds leftover starch from the pasta - the cheese can curdle. This is what researchers have called the unwanted "mozzarella phase". But if the starch exceeds 4% of the cheese weight, the sauce will become stiff when it cools.
By adding varying amounts of cheese to a set amount of water and pasta at a constant heat, researchers found a clear link between starch and the 'perfect' sauce. Cooking pasta that leaves behind lots of starch - which makes the water appear milky - will lend itself to a good Cacio e pepe.
