Cacio e Pepe with a stick blender

I like Cacio e Pepe because of it's minimalism: pecorino cheese and black pepper. But it can be difficult to make, requiring careful temperature control to prevent it from seizing. This technique uses a stick blender to begin the emulsion, which I believe stabilizes the cheese and makes it easier to turn into a simple sauce. It's quick and easy to make; check the YouTube video to see the paste-like texture you're aiming form.

Cacio e Pepe served with cooked radicchio 

The following proportions were generous for two as a main course, served with a tasty salad. The pepper is quite assertive, but it's supposed to be. 

225 g     8 oz    Spaghetti, uncooked

100 g   3.5 oz    Pecorino Romano cheese, grated very fine

  5 g     1 Tbs?  Black Pepper, coarse grind

 90 ml  3/8 C     Cold Water (approx, adjust as you go)

Cook the Spaghetti in just enough boiling salted water to cover it (we want to use the starch which will be in the water to help emulsify the sauce).

In the 10 minutes or so it takes to cook, prepare the sauce.

Blend the Cheese and Pepper in a tall vessel with a stick blender, adding about half the water, then gradually more until you get a paste-like consistency; avoid letting it get to the thinness of a batter.

Transfer the cooked Spaghetti to a warm bowl, it's fine if there's water clinging to the pasta.

Add the sauce paste and stir well, it's probably too thick to become a sauce.

Add a little hot starchy cooking water to the bowl and stir vigorously to coat the pasta; add more water if it seems too thick. 

Serve with a bit more grated Pecorino as a garnish.

Next time...

I like to minimize prep bowls: if I blended in a bowl, I could reuse it to combine the sauce and spaghetti; this might require a larger batch to have enough substance for the stick blender.

Make a double (or larger) batch of the paste and freeze portions in tubs or ice cube trays; thaw, then add to cooked pasta with hot water to serve.

The blended pepper made the sauce a little gray: try blending the cheese with the cold water, then stirring in the ground pepper into the paste.