Fava Bean Cacio Pepe
Recipe by Chef Michael Joyce
Ingredients
- 1 pound pasta, preferably spaghetti or tonnarelli fresh or frozen
- 2 cups fava beans shelled and blanched (or use frozen)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 teaspoons blackpepper freshly cracked
- 1 cup Pecorino Romano cheese grated as finely as possible
- 1 lemon zested
- 1 to 2 cups pasta water reserved
- Kosher salt as needed
Instructions
- Bring an 8-quart stockpot of water to a boil over high heat. Season aggressively with kosher salt.
- Once your water comes to a boil, add your pasta and give it a quick swirl with a wooden spoon. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 2 cups of pasta water.
- While pasta is cooking, warm a 10- to 12-inch sauté pan over medium heat. Melt the butter in the pan but keep an eye on it; don’t let it burn.
- Add cracked black pepper to the pan and toast for 2 minutes, stirring the whole time.
- Next, add 1 cup of reserved pasta water and the fava beans, along with the pasta. Add the grated Pecorino and lemon zest.
- While the pan is still on the heat, use tongs or a spoon to stir the pasta, coating it in the starchy pasta water and melting cheese to create a creamy sauce. If your pan looks a little dry, add a splash of pasta water. If your sauce looks too soupy, keep on cooking it down until it adheres to the pasta. Taste and season with salt if needed, but remember Pecorino is salty so you may not need much salt, if any.
- Divide pasta among your bowls and shower with more grated Pecorino. Mangia!
Notes
Cacio e Pepe is one of my go-to pastas at home. It comes together super quickly with help from some key pantry items: pasta, black peppercorns, and hard, salty cheese. It’s really all you need but dismiss the simplicity of ingredients and you’ll miss out on one of the gems of Roman cooking. And Cacio e Pepe is the ideal way to showcase one of spring’s brightest stars: fava beans.
Whole black peppercorns are essential and freshly grinding them is key to unlocking their spicy floral notes. You can use a standard pepper grinder, but I prefer to use a mortar and pestle. Sure, the heavy stone tool crushes the peppercorns with ease, but it also connects me to the generations of families that have cooked this dish before me. You can vary this recipe as the season progresses, shifting to late-spring sweet peas, summer corn, and even cauliflower in the fall. If using fresh favas, make sure to shell and blanch your beans before starting this recipe