The Dish: Fresh pasta and cacio e pepe from Homemade by Bruno in South Philadelphia
SOUTH PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- In today's "The Dish", we're bringing Rome to you and making one of the Italian city's most classic pasta dishes: cacio e pepe.
The cheese and pepper sauce takes a mere minutes to make, literally as long as it takes the pasta to boil - which we are also making fresh too (if you're up for it!).
I headed over to my pasta sister, Janine Bruno from Homemade by Bruno, for the lesson.
"Cacio e pepe is the first thing I'll order when I go to Rome," Bruno says.
The name of the dish tells you its two main ingredients: cheese and pepper. But before we get to the sauce, we're making homemade pasta.
"This is called umbricelli and it originates in Umbria," Bruno says.
She recently took her culinary tour group to Orvieto to learn to make it. It's an eggless pasta, made with a high-protein flour.
"We use semolina rimacinata, it's twice-milled semolina flour," she says. "Semolina flour is generally very coarse. This is very fine."
But at home, you can use any flour you like. It's one of just TWO ingredients in this homemade pasta. The other is water and it's a 50/ 50 ratio.
Just mix it together, knead it, cover it in plastic wrap, let it rest and then get rolling.
"It's almost like a hand-rolled spaghetti, but a little bit thicker," Bruno says.
Now, let's make that cacio e pepe sauce.
"You know what the best part of it is? It's so easy to make! It has minimal ingredients. It's literally Pecorino Romano cheese. That's the 'cacio' and 'pepe' is pepper," said Bruno.
It starts with cracked pepper and a hot pan.
"We're just going to crack the pepper right in the pan," Bruno says, recommending a pepper grinder that gets it nice and coarse.
While that toasts up, finely grate fresh Pecorino Romano cheese (she recommends the one called Fulvi), and add a little hot pasta water from your pasta boil.
"You're honestly just making like a paste," she says. "This is your sauce. This is your cheese sauce."
Now, add more hot pasta water to your pan of toasted pepper and let that simmer.
The homemade umbricelli got a quick boil in salted water, just about a minute. Then, you finish cooking it in the pan with the pepper.
"Once it's in here, we're going to kill the heat," she says, reiterating: "The heat is off."
Because there's no heat, it won't cook the cheese.
Bruno says that's the secret to creamy, not stringy, cheese sauce - letting it all come together with the heat OFF.
"There's so many different ways to do it, but I feel like this is the like most foolproof way to do it," she says.
Plate, top with some more fresh grated cheese and cracked pepper and serve!
It's a true taste of Rome! Mangia!
Pasta classes and Italian culinary tours
Bruno's journey to this moment has truly shown her grit and fortitude.
"I had breast cancer when I was 30. I lost my job. I went through a really crappy breakup and then my grandmother passed away," she says. "I was like, 'You know what? There's something in me that felt really inclined to hold onto that tradition."
So, Janine Bruno created Homemade by Bruno.
She started teaching pasta classes in her South Philadelphia home and later opened a pasta party space at the corner of 15th and Wharton.
"I think it's different than other pasta classes," she says. "My goal, at the end, is for everyone to be exchanging numbers and having a glass of wine together."
Bruno is also an award-winning gelato maker.
"The very first time I entered, I won the popular vote at a gelato competition," she says. "I went back a year later to compete in the world finals."
She placed third in North America.
Recently, she added Italian culinary tours to her Homemade by Bruno empire
"I will usually bring eight to 10 people on the trip and we stay in a beautiful villa. We do all different beautiful food experiences," she says.
From country to city to sea, Bruno says her Italian tour experience is immersive.
"We learn to make pasta in whichever region we're in," she says. "We make olive oil. We do all the things, like truffle hunt, depending on the season."
Along the way, Bruno has proven she's doing it her way.
She's now cancer free, happily married and always growing her vision.
"I am so beyond grateful," she says. "I could get emotional about it. I feel so so lucky. I worked really, really hard to be here and it's a lot of work but I love it."
For more information on Janine Bruno's pasta classes or Italian culinary tours, visit HomemadeByBruno.com.
