Cacio e Pepe

Rome's simplest and most demanding pasta -- Pecorino Romano, black pepper, and pasta water emulsified into a sauce over tonnarelli or spaghetti -- has only three ingredients but requires a technique so precise that it fails at incorrect temperature or water starch concentration, producing a clumped, grainy mess instead of silky creaminess. It appears in Roman cookbooks from the 19th century and represents the philosophy of cucina povera (poor kitchen): the most flavor from the fewest ingredients.