Savory Cacio e Pepe Oatmeal
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Do you love oatmeal? I feel like it’s a rather polarizing breakfast choice. Some people will take a bullet for the stuff - a bowlet, if you will. Others would rather eat sand. I think I fall somewhere in the middle: I love a good oatmeal sweetened with maple syrup and dotted with berries, but after eating it for like 15 days in a row, I can go another 3 years without ever touching the stuff.
You know what I can’t go 3 minutes without craving? Cacio e pepe!! Is there…something wrong with me? Yes, probably, but if you’ve ever had the stuff, you get it. What’s little more than cheese, pasta water, and black pepper transforms into the most crave-worthy, unctuous, spicy sauce. And just because it’s commonly thought of as a pasta dish doesn’t mean the flavors cant transfer well to other mediums. And that brings us to savory oats.
I tried my hand at savory oats several years ago when I was still not including rice in my diet.
“BUT RICE ISN’T PASTA, WHAT!?!” I know you’re asking yourself right now.
No, rice isn’t pasta, but when I wasn’t craving cacio e pepe, I was thinking about how to get my mits on risotto. So in an effort to find a workaround to both pasta AND rice, I turned to gluten free oats. Here’s the thing though: oats are not rice and they do not release the same kind of starch that rice does so I never successfully made oats into risotto - riz-oat-o, if you will. But I did realize you can do more with oatmeal than just add brown sugar and cinnamon to it, which is why we’re here now.
It was really only a matter of time before this happened. The whole point of both oatmeal and cacio e pepe (as pasta) is that they come together quickly and with minimal ingredients, so it’s kind of the perfect marriage. Not only is this a quick and delicious meal, but it’s versatile to eat at any time of day. Add an egg to it for breakfast, chop up some ham to have it for lunch, or serve it along side some grilled shrimp for dinner.
Are you an oatmeal person or a sand person? And if you love oats already, have you ever tried them savory? Let me know your favorite way to eat them in the comments.
Cacio e Pepe Savory Oatmeal
Ingredients
Instructions
- Add pepper to a medium sautè pan over medium heat and toast until fragrant (2-3 minutes). Shake the pan occasionally to avoid burning.
- Add oats and 2/3 cup water to a small saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a low boil. Stir the oats and lower to simmer and cook until water is absorbed. Remove from heat.
- While oats cook, make the sauce. Microwave 1/2 cup water with a pinch of salt for 90 seconds.
- Place cheese in a small mixing bowl. Drizzle a scant amount of the hot water into the cheese and whisk - you want to work very slow so the water fully melts the cheese. If you add too much water too quickly, you'll get globs of cheese and puddles of water. Add another teaspoon of water to the cheese and continue to whisk. Continue doing this until you have a creamy cheese sauce, then add the toasted pepper and a pinch of salt. *NOTE: You may not use the entire 1/2 cup of water...that's okay!
- Pour cheese and pepper sauce into the cooked oats off heat and stir well. Serve hot with another scrunch of pepper and pecorino.
