Chef Michelle's Cacio e Pepe Cheese Straws
by Erin Henderson
About once a season, I co-host a food and wine seminar at the college where I teach wine classes (a side hustle from my demanding duties running The Wine Sisters.)
My partner in crime for these seminars is my colleague, the excellent chef instructor, Michelle Massey. This workshop is worth the price of admission as each attendee gets a full, four-course dinner, all paired to excellent wines. The menu may change, of course, but we always start the evening with a cheerful spritz and a puff pastry cheese straw.
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Michelle loves using these quick-cooking pastry straws for their convenience (she single-handedly makes a four-course dinner for 30+ people in these labs, so anything she can strike off her to-do list quickly is a winner for her), but also because, despite the streamlined ease of the recipe, there's never a crumb left.
Cacio e Pepe Cheese Straws
Makes: As much as you would like (but make more than you think you should, people demolish these)
Chef level: Easy
Ingredients:
- Store bought, frozen puff pastry (preferably all-butter if you can find it)
- Egg, beaten
- Parmesan, finely grated
- Black pepper (Michelle says, “A lot”)
How to Make It:
- Set the oven to 400°F
- Layout the puff pastry, but no need to roll out with rolling pin.
- Brush the pastry with the beaten egg.
- Grate enough parmesan directly onto the egg-washed pastry sheet, enough to cover pastry completely. Sprinkle the black pepper on top.
- Use a rolling pin to gently roll over the cheese and pepper to press them into the pastry, but not expand the dough.
- Cut the pastry into finger-width strips (a pizza cutter works great for this), twist each strip and lay on a parchment-lined baking tray, with about an inch between each strip.
- Refrigerate uncooked straws for up to an hour to firm up the dough.
- Place cold straws in the oven and bake until puffed and golden, about 15 minutes.
Wine Pairing
Champagne is perfect for this little canapé. The salty cheese promotes the fruit in the bubbly, while the sharp bite of the sparkling wine rinses the palate of the buttery pastry.
