Spaghetti with Churn Parmesan & Pepper Butter

TIME: 45 Mins // SERVES: 2-3 // DIFFICULTY: Easy

Spaghetti with Churn Parmesan & Pepper Butter

Churn Parmesan & Pepper Butter makes it easy to make the traditional cacio e pepe dish that you love so much at home. You only need 3 ingredients to make it - Parmesan & Pepper Butter, pasta, and pasta water!

Our Parmesan & Pepper butter is loaded with fresh Parmesan Reggiano, Pecorino Romano, fresh ground black pepper, and sea salt, so all you need to worry about is including the appropriate amount of pasta water to help loosen up the sauce. Follow our steps here to make it at home.

WHAT DO I NEED?

3 oz. Churn Parmesan & Pepper Butter
1 lb. Pasta of your choice - we recommend spaghetti or bucatini
Boiling pot of water + salt
Saute pan for sauce making
Whisk
Optional: more Parmesan and fresh ground black pepper, if desired!

Fill your pot with enough water to completely submerge the pasta. Be sure to season it with enough salt (to the point where it tastes like ocean water). You will add some of this water to the sauce, where the salt and starches in the pasta water will actually work to thicken the sauce with the pasta.
Once your water is boiling and tastes like the ocean (yes, the ocean!), put your pasta in. Follow the directions on the package to cook it, and be sure to cook it al dente! You're going to be cooking it a bit further in the pan with your sauce creation, so it's critical to not overcook your pasta, otherwise you'll end up with bits and pieces.

**Pro tip: Just prior to the pasta finishing, reserve 2 cups of pasta water in a separate bowl, which you'll need in step 4.
Melt down the 3 oz of Churn Parmesan & Pepper Butter in your pan (this is roughly half of a full container). The butter can go in cold, it doesn't have to be room temp. Add in a few rotations of fresh cracked black pepper and sea salt if you'd like, and let melt on medium for about 1 minute.
When the butter is thoroughly melted, you're going to slowly pour in about 1 1/2 cups of pasta water into the pan with the melting butter. Use a whisk to incorporate the starchy pasta water into the melted butter to slowly form the sauce.It will look thin, but the addition of the pasta will thicken it.
When your pasta is cooked al dente, strain, and then toss into the butter sauce and incorporate together on a medium to low flame. Sauce should be thick enough to coat and stick to the pasta, and not too thin, where it pools at the bottom of the pan.

*If too thin, add in more butter and stir.
*If too thick, add in more pasta water and stir.
Taste for saltiness and savoriness. If you want more parmesan, fresh cracked pepper, or salt, add more!

Enjoy Cacio Pepe-ing!