Servings: Single serving to scale up

50g Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated 50g Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated
100g spaghetti 100g spaghetti
½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Prep (mise en place): subheading: Prep (mise en place):
Using the fine star teeth side of the box grater, grate 50g of cheese (per serving). It is easiest to do the grating within a half or quarter sheet pan. Then transfer into a heat-proof bowl.
Take a damp kitchen towel, twirl it into a rope like you're going to whip somebody, then wrap it into a circle the size of the base of your bowl. Then nestle your bowl with cheese into the towel-ring. This will keep the bowl stable when you are whisking boiling water into the cheese later on. You can skip this step if you are using a sturdy bowl.
Instructions: subheading: Instructions:
Add dry pasta into cold 12" non-stick skillet (You can see here I am making a 1.5x batch).
Add enough water to fully cover the pasta in the skillet. Add ½ teaspoon of salt (do not scale this amount up).
Bring the pasta to a boil over high heat, set a timer for the cook time as noted on the box of your pasta. Stir the pasta frequently during this time. Note that our goal is to not strain any water at the end, we are looking for just a small amount of water remaining in the skillet when the pasta is fully cooked.
While the pasta is boiling, crack approximately ½ teaspoon black pepper (per serving) into cheese and toss to incorporate. It is not necessary to measure the pepper, but you can if you wish.
When 2 minutes remain on the timer, ladle in small amounts of pasta water into the cheese while whisking at the same time. Keep doing this until the cheese is the consistency of a smooth and thick paste.
Keep a close eye on the level of water remaining in the skillet. By this time, there should be more pasta than water, and the pasta should be perfectly cooked. No more than ¼ cup of water should remain.
If the pan is dry before the pasta has finished cooking completely, add ¼ cup of water at a time until the pasta finishes cooking.
If the pasta has finished cooking and too much water remains, reserve ¼ cup of pasta water and strain the rest out and move the pasta back into the skillet.
Off heat, transfer all of the cheese mixture into the pasta with the remaining water. Do not drain the water, it is very important to leave approximately ¼ cup of pasta water in the skillet. If you reserved any pasta water, add it back to the skillet now.
Mix the cheese into the pasta & water with a rubber spatula and continue mixing off heat until well combined and creamy. Garnish with more black pepper and cheese if you wish. Enjoy!