Late night eats & Cacio e Pepe

I am currently stuffing my face with a whopper from Burger King because a certain someone told me about coming home and finding a big rat. Of course the obvious next question was "How big is it? Is it the size of a whopper?" which gave me a sudden hankering for a whopper. So my route was promptly redirected to Burger King 10 minutes before closing. The drive-thru closed at 10:30pm. Since it is late I myself saved a few (300) calories and ordered a whopper jr., which it turns out, is nowhere near the size of the rat.

(Before you start making assumptions, I haven't had a whopper in at least half a decade prior to this post. Okay, now read on for more artery-clogging noms.)

In Italy, restaurants were typically open quite late. While I consider 6-7pm an appropriate dinner time, Italians would probably consider 8-9pm appropriate. If you are considering eating in a crowded restaurant at 5pm in Rome, you should probably leave behind the free wifi and completely English menus and find yourself a less touristy restaurant. One of my favorite pasta places on the trip was Caccio e Pepe. Pepe is pepper... like the black stuff that comes in little packets you can get for free at McDonalds. According to our Airbnb host, caccio is a type of cheese in the shape of a pear. Yes, their signature dish is basically pasta with cheese and pepper. An easy late-night/peasant's dish. Despite it's simplicity, it satisfies.

 the original caccio e pepe

 I got a giant block of pecorino cheese. By giant, I mean like the size of six whopper jr, in other words, costco-sized... because I got it from Costco. And tried to make Caccio e Pepe based on a fairly simple recipe that I attempted to follow based on memory.

 Here is my finished dish! It was just like Rome and as good as I remember... except for the extra pool of butter.

Actually, now that I look at the pictures... they don't look alike at all. But it still tastes like butter and cheese which makes it just as delicious.

Directions:
1. Boil half a pack of noodles to al dente (e.g. spaghetti).
2.  While noodles boil, grate the cheese until noodles are done or you are tired ~half a cup.
3. Once noodles are done, drain.
4. Cut butter into 1tbsp slices. Use 3 tbsp if you like butter, 4 tbsp if you really like butter, and 5 tbsp if you want to have a pool of butter like me.
5. Melt butter in pan. Once melted, but not burnt - add noodles, cheese, and lots of pepper.
6.  Toss until everything is mixed.
7. Serve.

Voila! No need to rush to the grocery store for a glass jar of red sauce to drown your noodles.