If you want to be a very popular guest—or host, or coworker or friend, make this shortbread. Though it’s as simple to mix together as any cookie, there’s a world of tender, crisp, and crumbly textures inside, and a haunting flavor that doesn’t quite know if it’s sweet or savory.
And, in my experience, it doesn’t matter—you don’t need to justify it as one thing or another. Every time I set it out, I explain nothing—at first. Hungry lurkers inevitably swarm and empty the plate, without stopping to wonder what genre of snack they're eating.
In writing it, she wanted to give cooks new techniques and unexpected recipes they wouldn’t find in other cast iron cookbooks—this enigmatic shortbread is a perfect example, and has become the one she makes most often.
She worked in not only the cheeses (cacio) and the black pepper (pepe), but semolina flour—to give the shortbread a hint of warm, wheaty, pasta-like flavor, but also an added softness, and a tight, fine crumb structure.
“It gives you the best crumb,” Charlotte wrote to me. “But then you get this subtle contrast where the cheese's graininess comes through. So there's a little grit in it, but it comes from the cheese, the way it would in proper cacio e pepe.” (She also described this texture, delightfully, as "cat's tongue, slightly scratchy.")
She then bakes in one more round of crisp outer texture and toasty flavor by pressing the dough (carefully!) into a hot cast iron skillet, brushing the top with olive oil, and sprinkling over more pepper and cheese—the only clue the swarms will have of the blurred sweet-savory line before they dive in.
How to serve it? As I mentioned above, you need little justification or prior planning. But here are just a few serving ideas from that brain of Charlotte’s:
With aperitifs, like a proper Bellini or something with Lillet Blanc (or Champagne, rosé, or Riesling)
With after-dinner drinks, as a cheese course of sorts—with a spiced chutney, onion jam, fruit conserves, or smoky tomato jam
For breakfast, with a thin sheet of prosciutto and a soft-cooked egg
With tea and a fruity, sweet jam
Or—nothing. Charlotte says, “I really love it straight, though, most of all.”
cup plus 2 teaspoons finely grated Parmesan cheese, using the small holes of a box grater (divided)
1/2
cup plus 2 teaspoons finely grated pecorino Romano cheese, using the small holes of a box grater (divided)
2
teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper (divided)
1
cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2
cup confectioners’ sugar
1 1/4
teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2
cups all-purpose flour
1/2
cup semolina flour
1
tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil (divided)
1/2
cup plus 2 teaspoons finely grated Parmesan cheese, using the small holes of a box grater (divided)
1/2
cup plus 2 teaspoons finely grated pecorino Romano cheese, using the small holes of a box grater (divided)
2
teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper (divided)
1
cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2
cup confectioners’ sugar
1 1/4
teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2
cups all-purpose flour
1/2
cup semolina flour
1
tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil (divided)
Photos by Bobbi Lin
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I'm an ex-economist, lifelong-Californian who moved to New York to work in food media in 2007, before returning to the land of Dutch Crunch bread and tri-tip barbecues in 2020. Dodgy career choices aside, I can't help but apply the rational tendencies of my former life to things like: recipe tweaking, digging up obscure facts about pizza, and deciding how many pastries to put in my purse for "later."
Or substitue pecorino pepato for the parmesan & pecorino - I make an artisan savory biscuit with the pecorino pepato - whole black peppercorns in the pecorino.
I've made several recipes from Stir, Sizzle. Bake They are super - the recipes are well written and everyone loves the food. I love cacio e pepe's so I will make this soon.
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