Good pasta isn't about a long ingredient list — it's about technique. The three recipes in this chapter share a single principle: use starchy pasta water, work fast off the heat, and let the sauce cling rather than pool on the plate.
Cacio e Pepe tests your control of an emulsion with nothing but cheese, pepper, and water — there's no room to hide a mistake. Pasta al Limone plays the same trick with cold butter and citrus instead of cheese, silky rather than sharp. Oxtail Ragù is the outlier, a slow three-hour braise that rewards patience rather than speed, but it finishes the same way every good ragù should: tossed directly into the pot with the pasta, never ladled on top.
Three ingredients, one technique, and a lifetime of getting the emulsion wrong before you get it right.
Read the recipe →Bright, silky pasta al limone — lemon, butter, and Parmigiano, done in the time it takes to boil the pasta.
Read the recipe →Roman Sunday cooking: oxtail braised low and slow until the collagen surrenders, served with rigatoni.
Read the recipe →