Cacio e pepe

Step 1: Bring 2 litres of water to the boil with 1 tsp salt. Use less salt than usual and less water: the cheese is salty and you want the water starchy.

Step 2: Put 2 tsp black peppercorns in a wide frying pan over a medium heat and toast it for 1 minute, until you can smell it. Take the pan off the heat.

Step 3: Cook 7 oz tonnarelli or thick spaghetti for 2 minutes less than the packet says, stirring now and then.

Step 4: Put 2 ⅞ oz Pecorino Romano in a bowl. Ladle in about 4 tablespoons of hot (not boiling) pasta water and mash with a fork into a thick, smooth paste, like soft ricotta.

Step 5: Add a ladle of pasta water to the pepper pan and bring it to a simmer. Lift the pasta into the pan with tongs and toss over a medium heat for 2 minutes, adding splashes of water, until it is just al dente and the liquid is cloudy and slightly thick.

Step 6: Take the pan off the heat and wait 30 seconds. Add the cheese paste and toss hard, adding a little more pasta water, until the sauce is creamy and clings to every strand. Common mistake: adding the cheese over the flame, which turns it into stringy clumps; the pan must be off the heat.

Step 7: Serve at once on warm plates with an extra grind of pepper. Pici variation (Siena and Montepulciano): use 250 g fresh or dried pici, cook them 1–2 minutes longer, and keep a little more water in the pan, as the thick noodles drink up the sauce.