Scientists have found that the secret to great cacio e pepe may be the addition of cornstarch, an untraditional ingredient in the pasta dish.
In a new study, a group of researchers says the classic Roman dish can be “scientifically optimized” with the addition of cornstarch,Taste Test: Jack Daniel’s New Whiskey Shows How the Distillery Makes Stellar Rye Too“It’s very hard to get the right balance,” Fabrizio Olmeda, a statistical physicist who worked on the study, told theabout the traditional preparation of mixing cheese and pasta water. “And sometimes when you get it correctly, you don’t understand what you did to make it good.
Rather than combining the pecorino and ground peppercorns with the water left over from cooking the pasta—which can easily result in a clumpy sauce—the researchers took a different tack. After analyzing different versions of the cacio e pepe sauce, they found that starch likely has the biggest influence on consistency,noted. Pasta water often doesn’t have enough starch, so they’ve substituted store-bought cornstarch for that step.
For optimal cacio e pepe, the scientists recommend that the concentration of starch should be 2 to 3 percent the weight of the cheese, thewrote. In their recipe, which serves two hungry people, they use 2/3 cup of cheese and just less than a teaspoon of starch. Of course, when testing out the various recipes, the researchers went through a hefty amount of pecorino: Giacomo Bartolucci, another author on the study, estimates that 11 pounds of cheese were used.
Purists may decry these changes to such a stand-by Roman dish, which the researchers are well aware of. But they’re hoping that the inclusion of eight Italian authors helps sway those who may be initially put off by the modern reinterpretation of cacio e pepe. If anything, it’s a fun new recipe—andTori Latham is a digital staff writer at Robb Report. She was previously a copy editor at The Atlantic, and has written for publications including The Cut and The Hollywood Reporter.
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