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Jackfruit Tacos
Ligaya Mishan, Aimee Nezhukumatathil
43 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
43
1 3/4 hours
Updated Oct. 12, 2023
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Bring a large pot of water to a boil. (Do not add salt.)
Meanwhile, in a very large nonstick skillet or pot set over high heat, toast the peppercorns just until fragrant. Let cool, then grind or crush very coarsely. Reserve 1 teaspoon for serving.
In the same skillet or pot, combine the cheeses and remaining pepper. Add 1½ cups warm water and stir to make a thick pecorino cream.
Add the pasta to the boiling water and stir. Keep the heat very high until the water returns to a boil, then stir again and adjust the heat as needed to keep the water bubbling. Set a timer for 8 minutes.
Set the pecorino cream over very low heat. When the timer goes off, scoop out about ½ cup of the pasta cooking water and set aside. Taste the pasta and continue cooking until the pasta is done to your liking. Drain pasta very well (this is important, as adding too much hot water can cause the cheese to clump) and add to the pecorino cream.
Use tongs or two forks to stir, turn and toss the pasta in the sauce over low heat until the cheese melts and the sauce becomes sticky. Don’t add any water yet, just keep tossing. To test, squeeze a drop of sauce between your thumb and finger. When the sauce is thick and forms strings like glue, it is ready. If it starts to dry out, add cooking water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and toss thoroughly before adding more.
Divide among 4 bowls, twisting the pasta into a nest, if desired. Dust with additional pecorino and the reserved pepper. Serve immediately.
Don’t be fooled by the small number of ingredients. Achieving a creamy, clump-free cacio e peoe is nearly impossible due to the extremely narrow temperature range required for success, Fortunately there is an easy trick. Whisk together a cup of water and perhaps a Tbs of cornstarch and heat until thickened. Then add your pasta water and cheese and you will get a perfect emulsion every time. Yes, I suppose it’s cheating, but my understanding is that even restaurants do this.
Measuring cheese in a cup is a fools errand. There is just too much variation in graters. Then how loosely do you pack it? Just weigh the cheese.
This dish has a tendency to seize up and become a big mess. I suggest googling Ethan Chlebowski's video for his foolproof, scientific preparation method. It's been successful for me both times I've made it.
I am in Italy now, and have been here for quite some time. Here, they use Pecorino semi - Stagianato unlike the rock-hard pecorino sold in the US (very aged). Garnish with Romano. The softer, younger pecorino doesn't require all this laboratory work to melt - and stay perfectly melted. Aged cheeses do not want to melt or emulsify.
Take the short container of Locatelli from the store and two tablespoons freshly ground pepper, dump it over the freshly drained pasta, stir with tongs and add water if necessary. Serve with the bottle of Primitivo you've already been drinking because of how easy it is to make this. And done.
Love the ingredient list/proportions like all get out....as for technique my preference is to follow Deb Perelman's method of creating a thick cheese/pepper paste with room temperature water. This can be done hours in advance. The hot pasta gets the paste dollopped over the surface. Tossing lets the cheese melt uniformly, with added amounts of the starchy pasta water added as needed, until achieving the most glorious Cacio EVER!
Grate the cheese with a microplane for the fluffiness the recipe requires and you'll find the numbers do add up.
No salt in water makes for very bland noodles.. cheese alone can't be sufficient to make it salty enough.
This may be heresy, but here's what I do: stir the pecorino and pepper together in a large glass bowl. Once the pasta has been boiling for a few minutes, take some of the water and add it to the cheese/pepper mixture, just enough to get it to a paste. Drain the pasta, pour it onto the cheese paste, stir it up with a wooden spoon, and serve. The key is a finely grated pecorino. I get a good melt, and it's delicious and super easy.
When making this dish, I mix my pecorino and black pepper in a separate bowl. I fill a large bowl, large enough for the pasta and mixing, with boiling water. Once the pasta is done cooking and drained, I empty the bowl with boiling water and add in the pasta. I then slowly add in the pecorino and black pepper mixture tossing all the while to making sure the pasta evenly coated.
A cup and a half of water is WAY WAY too much. I made Cacio e pépé soup. Not a smooth sauce.
In the original recipe, you only use Pecorino. Parmigiano is a foreign ingredient (being from Parma). It is clear though that adding it makes much more easy to prepare since Pecorino has an irresistible tendency to clump.
I made this dish using the recipe printed with the article on the Roscioli food empire and took the cooked past out of the water with tongs. What a mess: the sauce never clung to the pasta and ended up in gluey webs. To make a successful cacio e pepe pasta: drain the cooked pasta in a strainer and dry in a clean dish towel and THEN add it to the sauce.
Converting oz to cups of grated cheese depends entirely on how finely grated it is. With a fine rasp grater, one gets much more volume than with a coarse shredding.
But weight remains constant whether a solid chunk or grated. Volumes would be different.
become clumpy. It tasted great, but the cheese clumped up and was chewy. Read comments for suggestions.
Once upon a time there was a foolish husband who thought cooking a Cacio e Pepe for his pregnant wife would be nice; it would remind her of their honeymoon. But instead of preparing a lovely dish to eat on the porch, he cook a monstrous wet clumpy heap that obliterated their cheese supplies and neither of them could eat. This recipe is not for inexperienced cooks.
Like others here I was not able to achieve desired consistency in the cream. 1.5 cups seems like way too much water compared to what I’ve since watched online. I was able to get the cheese clump to melt down once added to the pasta but required some rigorous tossing and stirring. Pasta took the brunt of this unfortunately. Tasted great and like the touch with the toasted peppercorns, but presentation was not what I hoped. Thanks to all who posted recommendations here.
Even when you follow the instructions precisely, the cheese tends to clump together.
I am a big fan of NY Times Cooking. This, however, was an utter disaster for me and a sad waste of pricey cheese. I will seek out another method.
A cup and a quarter of water added to the cheese makes a pecorino soup not a paste.
We were very excited to eat this dish, but two tablespoons of peppercorns does seem very excessive. Our mouths and stomachs were on fire after eating this, and we could not finish. Please reconsider when publishing this kind of recipe.
Horrible recipe…either not tested or not enough info to make it. Needs more info on how to make “crema”….. following instructions produced a clump of cheese…ughh
TRUST THE PROCESS! That’s the only thing missing from this “recipe.” At first I thought, “oh no. Here we go again. Another watery, clumpy mess.” Just keep the heat LOW, and keep stirring. It will happen. If you trust the process, you will have a very authentic cacio e pepe.
"When the sauce is thick and forms strings like glue, it is ready." No, that means it's ruined, not ready. The water can't be so hot that the cheese gets stringy. My tip (among the hundreds other ones here) is to scoop out (approx) a cup of starchy pasta water a few minutes before the pasta is ready and let it come to room temperature. Have the cheese paste ready to mix with the drained pasta. Then, add the pasta water a tablespoon at a time, but NOT right out of the boiling pasta pot.
Would sodium citrate help the melting? It works for Mac and cheese.
I cut the amount of cheese in half and made about 3/4 lb of Spaghetti. It’s still way too much cheese. The good thing about the recipe is that using warm water prevents the cheese from clumping. Next time, less cheese!
I would love to see a video of this recipe to see what it takes to make it work. My husband makes cacio e pepe and carbonara regularly. They always come out perfectly emulsified, creamy. He decided to try the method in this recipe and it was a complete disaster.
Like so many before me, cheese clumped badly and way too much pepper. The hunt continues...
A bad recipe Water in the cheese turned it to rubber, it had potential but in the end it hit the bin Such a shame.
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