maize cacio e pepe – shake cooking

Prepare the corn: Heat a large skillet (or the empty pot you’ll use to cook your pasta) over high heat for one minute. Once hot, add the olive oil and allow the oil to heat for a minute. Add the corn kernels, season them with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and toss them once or twice, just so they’re evenly coated in the oil and let them be. Do not stir for 3 to 4 minutes, or until underside is toasted. Stand back as they may crackle and pop, especially towards the end. Add the butter and mix, then scrape everything into a bowl and set aside.

Cook the pasta: Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil and cook the linguini until about 30 seconds before done. (We’re not going for a full al dente dish here because the pasta dish is finished off the heat and therefore won’t continue cooking.) Before draining the pasta, reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water and book.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauce: Prepare your sauce before the pasta is done cooking, as we want to add it to the very hot noodles. In a food processor or high-speed blender, blend the pecorino and about 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper until the cheese is as fine as possible. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of cold water, one at a time, and mix each addition thoroughly before adding the next. You are looking to change the cheese from a powdery consistency to a creamy consistency, like frosting for a cake; stir the mixture for as long as needed (about 1 minute) to achieve this. Taste the mixture: it should be very salty and peppery; add more pepper if needed (aged pecorino is usually very salty, but if using something else, add salt here too)

Assemble and eat: As soon as your pasta is drained, put it back in the empty pan with the black pepper-pecorino sauce. The sauce will be too thick for the task, but do your best to spread it evenly over the noodles. Next, start adding the reserved pasta water, 1-2 tablespoons at a time, stirring the pasta all the time. This will soften the cheese mixture and give it a nice gravy consistency. Keep adding water, stirring all the time, but not so much that the sauce “washes” the noodles. Add the reserved corn and mix, then transfer everything to a serving bowl. Finish with more cheese and black pepper and eat right away.

Do it in advance: Not my favorite dish to reheat, but you can make the corn ahead (an hour or a day, just reheat it), and the cheese-pepper sauce (up to a week in the fridge) , and have everything ready to reheat. go when the pasta is very hot.