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Photo: Sebastian Maas / DER SPIEGEL
Ginger from China, cinnamon from Vietnam, vanilla from Madagascar and pepper from India?
What we take for granted in our pantry today would have astonished even the most daring world travelers a few centuries ago.
In her day, seafarers had to risk their lives sailing for months to get such luxuries.
European armies fought bloody battles just so their kings wouldn't have to taste how bad and bland their medieval cuisine was.
Pepper was an early driver of globalization.
It was also because of him that dubious discoverers like Columbus, da Gama and Magellan traveled around the world until they eventually arrived there "where the pepper grows".
Today's map, some political rifts and the wealth of entire regions are thus strongly influenced by the (often exploitative) spice trade of the past or even based on it.
Good money has always been made with spices, and it is not for nothing that people still speak of “peppery prices” today.
Or for centuries rich merchants were disrespectfully called "peppersacks".
more on the subject
Where pepper growsBy Jan Puhl and Johannes Saltzwedel
World War for cinnamon and cloves
And today?
Pepper is hardly in the limelight anymore.
You can find it ground to dust in glass shakers that have become cloudy from greasy fingers on every snack table.
Sometimes he is allowed to crown a fried egg.
Today, however, the former royal spice is rarely allowed to really shine.
If you want to change that, you should try Pasta Cacio e pepe.
The Italian name simply means »pasta with cheese and pepper«, but the dish is much more than that. Anyone who reads this column often will already know from the dal recipe that you can bring out whole new levels of flavor from spices when you add them to roasted in a pan or fried in a little oil.
Today we do the same thing with ordinary black pepper.
It then loses some of its spiciness, in exchange for the more floral aromas of the dried berries being released.
Together with some hard cheese and olive oil, you make a creamy sauce that not only tastes good to kings in the Middle Ages, but also to middle-aged men like me.
By the way: "Cooking without charcoal" is now also available as a newsletter so that you never miss a recipe again.
This is what you need for two servings:
250 g durum wheat pasta, eg spaghetti or rigatoni
100 g hard cheese, eg Grana Padano or Pecorino Romano
1-2 tbsp black peppercorns
50ml olive oil
1 tbsp butter
What does this cost?
I paid 1.80 euros for the ingredients I used and, exceptionally, I wasn't even at the discount store.
So it's even cheaper.
How long does it take?
Only 15 minutes
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How to make pasta cacio e pepe
Cook the noodles almost according to the instructions on the packet, just use a little less water so that it can absorb proportionately more starch.
This will help thicken the sauce later and add more creaminess overall.
Coarsely crush the pepper while the noodles are bubbling in the pot.
If you don't have a mortar, you can fold it in a piece of kitchen paper and carefully hit it with a hammer.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat and sauté most of the pepper for about four to five minutes.
Reserve a little crushed pepper for garnishing.
Now reduce the heat of the pan to the lowest level.
When the pasta is cooked, it can be added to the peppery oil along with 150 to 200 milliliters of the cooking water and the knob of butter.
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Mistakes happen to everyone: If the pan is too hot or the cheese is grated too coarsely, the creamy sauce won't work - instead you get thick lumps of cheese
Photo: Sebastian Maas / DER SPIEGEL
Then grate the cheese as finely as possible.
Like the cooking water, this will help cream the sauce.
Coarse chunks of cheese are more likely to clump in the heat of the pan and then stick together.
Slowly add the cheese (not all at once) to the pasta while stirring a lot.
Even if there are a few lumps of cheese on the first try, that's not the end of the world: they taste good too.
Finally arrange everything on a plate, add some pepper and grated cheese and chop in as quickly as possible.
Because whether royal or not: even the most gently melted cheese will eventually harden again when it cools down.
Are you looking for more dishes that cost little money? Then please follow me on Instagram. Do you know dishes that cost little money? Then write me an email or share a picture with the hashtag #KochenOhneKohle.
