Smoked Paprika Cacio e Pepe with Manchego and Iberian Lard
Rome's three-ingredient pasta rebuilt with the Spanish larder: aged Manchego in place of pecorino, pimentón de la Vera for smoke, and a spoon of Iberian pork lard to carry it all. Same rules, different country, a pasta that did not exist until our kitchen made it.
- 200 g tonnarelli or spaghetti
- 120 g aged Manchego, finely grated, plus more to serve
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, coarsely crushed
- 1 teaspoon pimentón de la Vera (sweet or bittersweet)
- 1 tablespoon Iberian pork lard (or good olive oil)
- Salt for the water
- Cook the pasta in well-salted water until just short of al dente. Reserve a large cup of the cooking water.
- In a bowl, mix the grated Manchego with 4 tablespoons of hot pasta water into a thick, smooth paste.
- In a wide pan over low heat, melt the lard, add the pepper and pimentón and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant. Take the pan off the heat.
- Add the drained pasta to the pan and toss. Add the cheese paste and toss vigorously, adding more pasta water a splash at a time until the sauce is creamy and coats every strand.
- Serve at once with more Manchego and a last dusting of pimentón.
Cacio e pepe is the Roman proof that great cooking can be a matter of technique rather than ingredients: pasta, pecorino, black pepper and the starchy water the pasta was cooked in, emulsified into a sauce that clings without a drop of cream. It is also, famously, easy to ruin. Too hot and the cheese seizes into rubber; too cold and it never melts. Our kitchen kept the technique intact and moved the pantry six hundred miles west.
Manchego, the sheep's milk cheese of La Mancha aged for a year, behaves like a slightly nuttier pecorino and melts into the same silky emulsion. Pimentón de la Vera, the smoked paprika of Extremadura, replaces half of the black pepper and gives the dish a red-gold colour and a low, sweet smoke. And in place of the nothing that Roman purists insist on, we add a teaspoon of Iberian pork lard, manteca ibérica, which rounds the sauce and gives it a whisper of ham.
The technique that makes or breaks it
Everything depends on temperature. Grate the cheese finely and make a paste with a ladle of pasta water that is hot but not boiling, well off the heat. Toss the drained pasta in a warm, not hot, pan with the paprika and pepper bloomed in the lard, then add the cheese paste and toss hard, adding splashes of pasta water until the sauce is glossy. If it looks grainy, it was too hot; a splash of cool water and more tossing can sometimes rescue it.
Eat it immediately, from warm bowls, with more Manchego on top and, if you want the Spanish thread to hold, a glass of cold fino sherry. It is a pasta for two people who are not in a hurry to talk.
