Ingredients
- 30g Parmesan
- 40g Pecorino
- 3 Bulbs of Garlic
- 450g Linguine
- 1 Lemon
- 1.5 Tbsp Pepper
- Salt
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Place your garlic bulbs on a piece of baking paper and wrap them up. Place the garlic parcel in a roasting tin and whack in the oven for 45 minutes.
- Very finely grate your Parmesan and your pecorino and add to a mixing bowl. Grate in the zest of a lemon.
- Place a frying pan on the heat. Add 1.5 tbsp of pepper into the pan. Toast the pepper, mixing it around the pan, and remove from the heat as it starts properly smoking. Add to the cheese bowl.
- Once the garlic is done (it will be squidgy if you press it), remove from the oven. Peel back the skin and with a knife, squish out the roast garlic within. Once all the garlic is squeezed out, discard of the skins. Chop the garlic up until you have a nice smooth paste. Add to the cheese bowl.
- Get a fork and mix the cheese and garlic together. Once it is all combined, you should have a nice thick paste.
- Now you need to get everything ready, as speed and timing are key. Get a jug out, and boil your kettle. Put your pan on the heat, and add your water – don’t fill it, you only need enough water to cover the pasta (you need the water to be very very starchy).
- Add a nice big pinch of salt to the water and bring to the boil. Then add your linguine.
- After 4 minutes, with your jug/mug remove 300ml starchy water from pan. Add it bit by bit to your cheese paste, making sure it is all nicely combined. You’ll end up with a nice creamy consistency.
- Back to the pasta – after 8 minutes in total, drain the pasta and pour about 200ml pasta water into another cup. You’ll need this.
- Add the pasta back to the pan and put the pan back on a very very very low heat. Quickly, pour over your sauce. Start beating the sauce through the pasta. As it begins to thicken, keep adding splashes of your pasta water. Keep beating and adding splashes. If it gets stringy or lumps of cheese appear, don’t worry. Just keep beating hard and adding water. This will take about 3 minutes – what you are going for is a thick creamy emulsion. Turn off the heat and keep beating for 1 final minute.
- Once the consistency of your pasta resembles the photo, you’re ready to go.
- Serve the pasta on to 4 plates. Top with an extra grinding of pepper, a sprinkle cheese and a nice squeeze of lemon juice (it really cuts through the rich cheese and garlic).
Method
Of course the eagle eyed amongst you will notice this is spaghetti rather than linguine, but we are in the middle of lockdown, so we need to work with what we can get.... This is another MOB kitchen recipe, and another veggie one. Although the Eldest suggested it, I was happy to give it a try as sounded delicious. Despite the title, the overwhelming flavour of this pasta )at least if I got the ingredients right, and they are right on the MOB website, is of black pepper. Not that that is a complaint, I love black pepper and this pasta has a creaminess from the garlic and cheese that mellows (partially) the fire of the pepper. But it is spicy, so dont be fooled into thinking this is just mellow garlic. It aint
There is a lot of cheese here as well and a squeeze of lemon juice. I think next time I would leave out the lemon juice as it was a little bit too front-and-centre but see what you think. Overall an interesting dish. It takes a wjile to prepare so you might want to save it for a special occasion, but it is delicious, even if all the beating seems a little like hard work.