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The Noodle 100 · make it at home

Pici cacio e pepe, rolled by hand

1 hr 15 min (30 min rest) · 4

Tuscany's fat hand-rolled noodle, made with just flour and water, rolled between your palms into thick, uneven strands. Siena serves it all'aglione (garlic and tomato) or cacio e pepe.

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The real one

You need

• For the pici: 400 g (3 cups) flour (half 00, half semolina is good), 200 ml (generous 3/4 cup) warm water, 1 tbsp olive oil, a pinch of salt
• For the sauce: 150 g (5 oz) Pecorino Romano or Pecorino Toscano, finely grated, 2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper, 30 g (2 tbsp) butter (optional)
• Semolina for dusting

How to make it

1. Dough (10 min + 30 min rest): Mix the flour, salt, oil and water into a smooth, firm dough, knead 8 minutes, wrap and rest 30 minutes.
2. Roll (20 min): Roll the dough 1 cm thick and cut it into strips 1 cm wide. Roll each strip under your palms on an unfloured board, hands moving out from the middle, into a rope about 3 mm thick. Lay on semolina-dusted trays.
3. Cook (6 min): Boil in well-salted water 4 to 6 minutes until tender but chewy. Save a big cup of the water.
4. Sauce (3 min): Toast the pepper in a dry wide pan 30 seconds, add a ladle of pasta water (and the butter). Add the drained pici, toss, then off the heat add the cheese a handful at a time with splashes of water, tossing hard until creamy. Serve right away with more pepper.

Tips

• An unfloured wooden board gives the grip you need to roll; too much flour and they slide.
• All'aglione: cook 6 cloves of the big Tuscan garlic slowly in oil, add a can of crushed tomatoes and a little chili, simmer 20 minutes.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any shop's recipe.