Babish's Secret to Perfect Cacio e Pepe | Epicurious 101
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Today on Epicurious 101 Andrew Rea, creator of Binging With Babish, demonstrates his preferred method for making Cacio e Pepe-the new school, high-tech, unbelievably easy way.
Check out the Babish Culinary Universe! / channel
Director: Mel Ibarra
On-Set Director: Cory Cavin
Producer: Jen Osaki
Director of Photography: Kevin Dynia
Editor: Jared Hutchinson
Talent: Andrew Rea
Sr. Culinary Director: Kelly Janke
Culinary Producer: Jeannie Chen
Culinary Associate Producer: Andrea Steinberg
Associate Producer: Oadhan Lynch
Line Producer: Jen McGinity
Production Manager: Janine Dispensa
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Camera Operator: Lucas Young
Audio: Rebecca O'Neil
Production Assistant: Justine Ramirez
Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araújo
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
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When Babish said "I guarON-TEE"... I just remembered the late great Cajun cook Justin Wilson. Nice to see someone younger than I am (!) know who that is. And this recipe is so good. I feel like I want some now.
My grandad was Cajun and I never got to meet him but my father watched Justin Wilson religiously because his accent reminded him so much of his dad. So I always kind of think of that guy as my grandad in a way lol.
For whatever it's worth, Justin Wilson was not Cajun & essentially played a(n offensive) caricature of one.
I thought of Charles Barkley when I heard it, but I like y’all’s explanation better
He sound like somebody ghetto auntie talking about how good her greens are
@@holyeffingcow OfFeNsIvE....get a life
Who else remembers how STRESSFUL it was for him to get the cacio e pepe right in that one botched by Babish episode
Who else remembers the use of question marks?*
@@einundsiebenziger5488 How dare you assume that was a question
The descent into madness
They brought the guy who destroyed $1000 of parmesan and nearly drove himself into a mental breakdown over pasta water to talk about cacio e pepe?
looks like it lead him to a good place. this is his redemption
Let him redeem himself pobrecito 😢
Best babish episode ever
You are talking about that as if it were something bad. It was one of his biggest videos lol
How did he destroy 1k of Parm?
Always nice to see Babish on epicurious, and an interesting take on the dish. Bonus points for likely getting us another Vincenzo video as well.
Yep, that leech can eat well this week too.
@@adamg.manning6088 leech? Lol
Yes. He'll whine and complain how this is wrong.
@@fglend73 he usually gives a fairly fair take with a delightful twist, a lot of commentators shame a lot more.
@@fglend73Cause it is wrong... butter in Cacio é Pepe? The blender is lazy, but an interesting idea for those who struggle to emulsify the sauce, but the butter is just willfully ignorant at this point.
I've tried this from another video - it works! Family has had this many times but agreed this one was the best. Maybe not traditional but impressive.
I just temper and mix the cheese with pasta water in a bowl with a whisk. Less wastage and no cheesy blender to clean
Whisk for one or two, blender when feeding a crowd. Like the hollandaise hack from Bon Appetite a few years back. That’s the beauty of learning a technique, you decide where and if it suits you. And for bonus points, de-gum the cheesy blender with the remaining pasta water, blend, dump, then add fresh hot water and soap. No more than half the volume of the carafe. Blend for 30 seconds on medium speed, then dump and rinse. Check for stuck on bits near the rim and lid, rinse, done. 🤙🏻👍🏻
Yep, by hand is the method I've had the most success with. I tried this fancy blender method and it became a gloopy mess and just all conglomerated at the bottom.
BINGO ! or just whisk together in the pan.......
Tried the recipe, this is amazing! Don't know why anyone would make cacio e pepe any other way. Thank you!!
I wouldn't bother with Blender
Yay! I love Cacio e Pepe! It's one of my favorites, but I sometimes break the sauce. Will try this! Thanks!
I don’t think any food needs to be authentic to be enjoyed, but he says in the video that this recipe takes out the sharpness of the pepper anddd makes the cheese more mild. I’ll be damned if those aren’t literally the best parts of authentic cacio e pepe. If the milder version still sounds good to you then obvs this recipe should be in your arsenal for a nice easy meal. But when you know what you’re doing, the authentic version is even easier and doesn’t require a blender.
The thing most people get wrong about cacio e pepe, including Babish (I’ve watched both his attempts, and he screws them both up), is underestimating how concentrated the pasta starch needs to be. Which means you need far less water than you’re used to boiling pasta in. And far less than he uses in this recipe.
You never need more water in your pan than just barely covering your pasta, for any simple pasta dish, not just cacio e pepe. If you don’t know how much water to add, you can literally add your dry pasta to the empty pan first and then cover it with water and bring to a boil. It’ll cook just fine. This only works with the boxed dry pasta, nothing fresh.
So, use less water and your pasta starch will concentrate to almost a gooey liquid. If you want a recipe to follow so you’re more comfortable I’d recommend Geoffrey Zakarian’s recipe on foodnetwork’s website. He’s doing things very similarly to Babish in this video but no butter or blender. Just solid technique and understanding.
Add a little olive oil in the blender and it will never seize up, even when it cools so service is easy.
How much? A tablespoon?
Anwser us
TELL US
@@cadenm5538 a little olive oil
@@t.martin3179
2 tbsp actually
I saw another chef make use of a blender for making another type of sauce. This is so clever. Thanks for sharing.
Anyone else finds Andrew’s voice so relaxing? 😊
thats propably the biggest thing that even made him famous because cooking good is one thing, there are hundreds of good chefs, but your voice and your maner and your confidence in the voice is the most important thing if you want people to listen to you
He did a short series called "Bedtime with Babish" where he read bedtime stories. Super awesome.
After many failed (and a few successful) attempts at Cacio e Pepe, THIS is the prefect foolproof method. Thanks!
Yeah... but you need two pans and a blender. I am so lazy for making dishes that I prefer the traditionnal method :-D (But it's great for making this recipe in advance AND for a crowd).
I literally made this dish the night before this video. I really coulda used some of these tips lol
It's such a hard dish to make...I've been trying for a long time to do it traditionally and have only gotten it right a few times. Stephen Cusato with Not Another Cooking Show has some good methods and also includes the one Andrew just showed.
@@MikeMikel4008 i did the alex the french cooking guy method, cooking like a risotto method. Once the pasta is all bendy . I switch to pan and add water slowly. that one works really well
LOVE THIS! thank you! this recipe has been my arch nemesis for too darn long!
I used my food processor and probably used a little too much water. What you you look for in the blender/food processor in terms of enough cooking water? (our only existing blender is my daughter's Ninja smoothie (upside down) blender. So I'd like some thoughts, Andy.
Luciano Monosilio is mainly known for his insane Cabonara, which courtesy to Alex French Guy cooking was also demystified... Check it out!
Restaurants do this all the time, if you have a blender there's no reason to do it the traditional way unless it's to show off or you plan to make it in someone else's house who doesn't own a blender and at that point, why didn't you bring yours? lol
The blender trick is a game changer. I finally mastered Cacio e pepe with the blender.
Amazing. Tried like 2 hours ago - came perfectly smooth. But didn't add butter. One more time - amazing technique.
Looks like a great method , I'm going to try it the next time I make Cacio e Pepe! Thank you
Why you say it like that
Thank you Babish, I tried this recipe and it was 10/10 👩🏽🍳
I made a cacio e pepe once that not only seperated, but it went green from the ink on the cheese rind
Just had cacio e pepe at a restaurant and loved it. Now I need to make myself and will definitely try this method. Thank you!
I once had a variation on the Cacio e Pepe, in Florence, Italy, with cracked and toasted juniper added. You have to try this, it is wonderful!
I miss all of the out-takes from the Botched with Babish, but this is a great video and what looks like a great technique. I am curious if it would work for Carbonara, which is equally persnickety.
I was thinking exactly the same . . . the added eggs make it even more "persnickety"!
thanks for teaching me a new word!
Don't worry everyone, I'm Italian and I give this a pass. Unlike putting garlic in your carbonara, this is acceptable enough to still call it cacio e pepe.
but WHY use the blender..? - the cheese would melt and blend just fine in the pan.
@@csnide6702
Because that’s not as easy as you’re pretending it is
HOW MUCH OF EVERYTHING?
The man who is botched has come to teach the dish that nearly ruined him
Yeah, vincenzo and the guys from Italia squisita will have something in their plate this week
Thanks for making the most simple dish complicated 🎉
Your negativity makes other people not want to be around you. If you want friends, I would suggest working on that part of your personality.
Use tin lined copper to cook it. The responsiveness of the pan makes it much easier to make as well.
No butter, no need for a blender. The trick to a great cheese sauce is finely grated Pecorino, letting the reserve pasta water cool for a couple minutes before adding it to the cheese, and also removing the pasta and pan from the heat before adding cheese mixture. Once you get the timing down, making this dish is a breeze.
Blending is sooooo useful. Making this tonight, thanks!
Where is the recipe ?
In italy we don't use butter for cacio e pepe 😅
butter still makes everything better
So?
@@Woodshadow YEEEEEEESSSSSSS
In the USA, Italian Americans who understand the history and authenticity of this dish, don't use butter either.
@@andriealinsangao613 hahaha, I was making pasta with butter and parmigiano at age 11 when my mother was late for lunch, do I have to do the same thing while I make cacio e pepe?!? No thanks: respectfully, but to each its own!!! :D :D :D
Just made this and it was delicious!!! Toasted some whole peppercorns before hand grinding and then adding to the butter. Used both cheeses (aged and hand-shredded) and the blender trick worked amazingly! Also added a drizzle of olive oil at the end.
…I also added shrimp because I like shrimp. Sorry Italians.
although this is not really Cacio e Pepe because of the butter that will make it more of an al burro with pepper the method of putting the cheese inside of the blender actually seems pretty nice and I'm going to try it for myself
Well done. I really got a laugh from the quote from the guy from Louisiana... I am showing my age, but the timing was perfect. JD
Hey the butter for the roasted pepper reminds me of double cream in carbonara, meaning outrageous!!!
This is so smart, I usually end up breaking my sauce and turning it stringy.
need about 10x more pepper in there! My chef says crack till you have to readjust 2 times.
Can’t tell you how happy I was for the Justin Wilson reference
Babish should take a few notes on the lighting for his channel...its so crisp here
I don't think it is the lighting. I think it is that he has chosen a dark background and this is a white background. Lighting in his videos looks fine.
Thank you for tips. This is the only recipe that worked for me! 🤗
I have learned this dish and the many times I failed I struggled with the cheese/pasta water mixture. If you put the hot pasta water like that into your cheese it will melt it instead of making it creamy, you have to cool it down first. Some tricks use corn flour to make it more stable
the og method of luciano is to make a gel out of cornstarch and water by mixing the cornstarch with the water and then heating the mixture up to make the gel. the cheese the peppers and the cornstarch gel all end up in a blender with a splash of olive oil to make into a sort of cheese paste. take a scoop of the paste onto a pan, add pasta cooking water and you get sauce. foolproof method indeed
One of the best tips I've got was to grate cheese as thin as possible (not on the Microplane). I tried this version and it always ends up too thin (but doesn't split). I tried corn starch and it works great (IF the water is not too hot!). My own take was to stabilize it with one yolk. It is not authentic, but it is reach and creamy.
if your sauce is breaking you can add a tiny bit of xantham gum, and I mean tiny, like 1/8 of a teaspoon. The gum is really powerfull if you put too much your sauce become slimy instead of creamy, but it helps a lot to create and stabilize emulsions.
You all are a disgrace
It is possible to melt the cheese just by adding the pasta water and lightly whisking it, there is no need for a blender. There are videos on UA-cam of grandmas doing it. And his pasta still ended up dry..
Ther is NO need for a blender to make a great cheese sauce.
I think he's officially un-botched this
Luciano’s method uses cornstarch.
Totally works. 10/10
this is the only dish I like black pepper in so I'm definitely giving this method a try
you need to try more dishes lol
Damn, what kind of food r u eating
@@lengeschandran109
Chicken stew simmered in lukewarm Malort... with black pepper added at the end for flavor.
What are the measurements?
We need a Babish and ProtoCooks ingredient switch episode. Babish would be up for the challenge!
Since I don't own a blender, do you think it'd be OK to use a food processor instead?
Excellent! You just fixed everything that was wrong with my cacio e pepe! Thank you!
“Using only these two cooking vessels” *adds blender*
Nothing was cooked in the blender
Last time I checked, blenders don’t cook things
Thanks to The Adam Friedman Show I finally accepted you into my subscription list, welcome.
Nice trick! I’ve made it 50 times and I’ve messed it up more than 45 times
This is a delicious recipe which I've made many times myself. But it's not cacio e pepe.
If you just want yummy pasta, this is a pretty good suggestion. But if you want to learn what traditional cacio e pepe tastes like, leave out the butter and the fancy blender, and just make a bunch of batches until you learn how to manage the temperature.
Even a bad batch of cacio e pepe is pretty good. And a properly-made batch is... perfect.
Wow, that’s a fantastic trip, I’m gonna make it this week. All the better with a Batman Jubilee!
Not sure if it’s been said yet, but wondering about putting whole peppercorns in blender with cheese before pouring on pasta.
Props for the Cajun Chef reference, :-)
thanks man, i needed this
so great. Thank you.
I hope, babish can meet chef Frank and do colab in 101 series.
Chef frank has forgotten more about cooking than Babish will ever know.
Was that a Justin Wilson reference!?!?!?
Finally!!! I ruined so many great cheeses trying this dish and this time worked perfectly.
Thank you!!!
Lol at the blender
Could you also use an immersion blender or a food processor?
Grazie mille Andrew!!!
I want Vincenzo to react to this
I cannot fathom a way for someone to make an “easier cacio e pepe” recipe video. It’s a handful of ingredients (if you include water) and has basically 3 steps. A blender?!
On the Italia Squisita channel they make fun of Babish and now he's using a recipe from one of the top chefs over there. Destiny.
So you're saying that in Italia Squisita they used butter? Interesting.
Do you have proof that one of the top chefs "over there" uses butter?
Favreau: “tongs” where’s my gift fork, Babs?
In his shrine, displayed prominently
Can you use this same method for carbonara?
Yeah, i tried. I blend egg and a little bit of cold milk or cream with cheese, since adding hot pasta water can cook the egg
Check babish's foolproof carbonara video. it's pretty much the same concept, just different ingredients.
@@ohiko9594no milk, no cream. Its an egg sauce
@@1001Balance I know it's not the traditional way to cook it, but the amount of milk / cream added is so small that it'll still taste like normal carbonara. Besides, following your logic, it sounds as if it shouldn't have any cheese in it as well, as it also melts and thickens the sauce, becoming part of it in the process. So, technically, carbonara is egg AND cheese sauce. Milk won't make it inedible and might instead compliment the cheese flavor. To each their own tho
@@ohiko9594 egg and cheese obviously, but not alfredo
I hope Vincenzo sees this
I just made cacio e pepe tonight for the first time ever. Didn't need the blender, just have to keep the pasta on low heat as you made the sauce. The pasta water is really the key
That's freaking smart. I like you.
This genius why didn’t I think using the blender
Very interesting, using the blender. It’s really tough to not break emulsion sauces like this, if you’re not able to stir it enough. This just replaces your stirring and covers up any imperfections you might run into by hand. I’ve seen cooks use a blender for hollandaise and bearnaise sauces, and they got great results out of it.
Edit: this is actually NOT cacio e pepe, because of adding the butter.
This is actually pasta al burro with pepper in it.
❤ the Justin Wilson reference.
The best thing about this video is the GMT on his wirst
That's adding complexity to the recipe. Learn the no-mixer recipe, you'll be fine.
*adds butter*
*Vincenzo weeps*
Neodymium is currently trading at about $4.77/oz, very close Andrew
It works. Approved!
2:43
SAUS
nice watch.
I see a new Vincenzo video in the works.
The Epicurious culmination of Babish's prior botched episode featuring several painful re-attempts to troubleshoot cacio e pepe.
Managed to fail with this "fool proof" recipe, also have to send my blender to garbage :(
I'm just a random guy on the internet, but I really like this blender:
www.amazon.com/WantJoin-Professional-Countertop-Commercial-Smoothie/dp/B07Y65QSGH
I have had mine for almost 2 years and although I don't blend all the time I found this "WantJoin" brand rip-off to be a nice happy medium for a blender when I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a Vitamix.
I think that if you just remove the pasta cooking water beforehand and set it aside, you won't have a problem because the temperature won't be so high that it creates that gooey,stringy mess you had in the beginning.
That's not foolproof. What Luciano Monosilio said foolproof was is to add a cornstarch slurry to rise the temperature point at which the emulsion breaks. That's what makes foolproof the Cacio e Pepe.
This is just using the residual heat of the pasta water and the power of the blender to emulsify the sauce.
Just like a Hollandaise would be made with an egg yolk and hot butter.
Please put attention on what Luciano Monosilio did really say and why he said it.
The pasta water IS a starch slurry, that’s why it works.
Took too much scrolling to find this. This method also let's him (Luciano) make the cheese sauce in Large quantities to save for later. Funny that he adds corn starch (or other potato starch etc) and it's still cacio e pepe but soon as an American toasts his pepper in a bit of butter it's not cacio e pepe anymore... 😅
First of your takes on italian cuisine that doesn't make me wanna tear my hair off
Are there some cheeses hat refuse to emulsify? I tried to make a cheese sauce with mozzarella cheese and it turned into a lump instead of sauce.
I’m realising it just now but Andrew kinda looks like Ryan Reynolds brother 😅
I thought this was Simon Whistler at first
At home I don't wanna go through washing a blender...3 pans/vessels for a 3 ingredient dish?
Thanks so much.
Be great if there was a recipe somewhere