February 9

I don’t even know why I kept the title of this recipe being ‘cacio e pepe’, which is supposed to be pasta with freshly ground pepper and parmesan. When I first made this dish, I pretty much intended to make exactly that. Keep it simple and stripped down! I am sure it’s delicious, but something inside of me just wasn’t in the mood to eat a dish of only pasta and cheese. I figured I would throw in a few handfuls of baby Kale, some pine nuts for crunch and a few chilli flakes for some heat. In the end, it was delicious. The kale certainly didn’t make the dish feel any healthier but I always like the taste and a bit of variation in texture in the bowl. Either way, whatever you choose to call it, this pasta is a ridiculously easy, unbelievably tasty dish.


The trick, as with any other pasta that doesn’t really have a ‘sauce’ is to reserve some pasta water, undercook the pasta by at least two minutes and cook the rest of the pasta with the kale, butter, reserved water and any seasoning in a pan. That way the pasta soaks up all of the delicious flavour, the pasta isn’t greasy or covered with a buttery coating because the starchy, reserved water combined with everything else creates more of a sauce for the pasta. I always find simple pasta like this to be surprisingly full of flavour.