Quick & Easy Cheesy Carbs (vegan option included)

Sometimes I just wanna shovel cheesy carbs into my face in a hurry, ya know? Some people call this Cacio e Pepe. Some people use a pot and a pan. We'll discuss in the notes.

Ingredients:

• spaghetti, fettucine, linguine, bucatini, or whatever you've got!

• Olive oil

• Black pepper (fresh ground, coarse grind if you can)

• salt

• finely-grated parmesan (or nutritional yeast, "nooch"), measured with your heart

That's it. That's all. If you want to be fancy (or if you really want the pepperiest flavor), cook your pasta in salty salty water in a pot per package direction, and if you drain it, save some water. Or if you think you can guess the right amount of water (and have a high-sided, skillet-shaped pan), you can cook your noodles in the same pan (again, this is what I go to when I'm lazy) - you want to cover the noods, you can always add more or take away, just don't burn 'em to the bottom. And again, save a little of that starchy water.

Set aside your noodles, put a couple tablespoons of olive oil in the pan with a tablespoon or two of black pepper on a medium heat. You want a little sizzle, but not burning (but there miiight be sneezing). Once the oil smells like the pepper, add back the noodles, toss them, add your cheese or nooch, and a little bit of the reserved noodle water while you're tossing them (or stirring them around really, you don't wanna toss your noods around, y'all).

Serve immediately.