Weekend Cookbook Challenge - Lucky Number Seven

Our seventh edition of WCC has a theme with a twist - Lucky Number Seven. This can be interpreted any way you'd like - so I went to my cookbook shelf, counted over to the seventh cookbook I've not used yet. The book was Cooking For Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser. I bought this book last summer after Adam from The Amateur Gourmet mentioned it a few times. I took it on my holiday to read; it was not bad, though I preferred the recipes to most of the story. I had marked some of the recipes to try last year, but the book got shoved to the side, like so many others.

I flipped through, looking for a recipe that could fit the challenge criteria and came across a beautiful sounding recipe for pasta that had...seven ingredients. This was the one for me!

Bavette Cacio e Pepe
Amanda says "One is tempted to add more cheese, butter and oil to the recipe. Resist this impulse." So I did.

My recipe differs slightly from the one in the book, mainly because I didn't read the directions all the way through. It was wonderful though.

sea salt
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup finely grated Romano cheese
1/2 lb linguini
2 tb unsalted butter, chilled
2 tb olive oil
1 tb freshly ground pepper

Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Sprinkle in sea salt. Meanwhile mix the cheeses together in a small bowl. When water boils, add pasta and cook until al dente. Scoop out 1/2 cup of cooking water, and drain the pasta.
Return the pasta to the pot. Add the butter, oil and 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Return the pasta to the pot and stir with tongs until the pasta is covered with the sauce. Sprinkle in the cheese and pepper and stir to blend. Season with salt (if you think it needs it) and serve.
4 servings.

We really enjoyed this, although I think I overcooked the pasta a bit. It was fast and very rich.


Hey you! Join in the fun! Email me your link to your WCC submission! I'll have the round up posted after August 4.