Linguine with toasted walnuts, figs, mint and pecorino

In 2012 a catastrophe in the shape of two earth quakes hit the Emilia Romagna province of Italy. For the ones not yet alarmed by the mention of this disaster: Emilia Romagna is where parmesan cheese is from, and where Italy stores and ripens its reserves. An estimated 200 million euros worth of cheese was damaged, and the world needed to come together to, you guessed it, save the cheese. Massimo Bottura, the chef of one of the world's best restaurants from that area, realized that these cheeses needed to be sold as soon as possible otherwise they would go bad. Risking I imagine both his citizenship and life he did something stupendously brave, he adjusted an old Italian recipe.

Cacio e pepe, a Roman pasta classic uses pecorino romano and black pepper to create a punchy vibrant sauce so easy, anyone could make it. Bottura swapped pecorino for parmesan, and used his global reach to urge the world to try this ridiculously easy pasta recipe, spiking parmesan sales across the globe, and thereby saving millions of euros worth of cheese.

This dish draws loose inspiration from the traditional cacio e pepe recipe, and from the safety of my own home in Amsterdam I've dared to add figs, walnuts and mint to the classic. If you feel like the pandemic has caused you enough anxiety and you don't need to offend a century old cuisine with your entitled desire to be creative then no harm done, leave em out, it'll be delicious either way!

Ingredients #

Ingredients for 2

• 200gr linguine
• 100gr walnuts
• Olive oil
• Black pepper
• Garlic
• Handful of mint leaves
• 100gr pecorino romano
• 4 super ripe figs
• Lemon
• Salt

Method #

1. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil, and cook the linguine al dente, according to package instructions.

2. Finely chop the walnuts and add them to your favorite pasta making pan with a generous amount of olive oil. Start toasting the walnuts over medium heat and season with a lot of black pepper and salt.

3. Finely mince 3 garlic cloves and add them to the toasted walnuts when the pasta has about 1 minute left, to make sure that the garlic doesn't burn.

4. While the garlic is frying, finely chop the mint and figs and add them to the skillet. Then add the linguine and toss everything together. Save some of the pasta water.

5. Grate the pecorino romano (yes, all of it) over the pasta and mix it through with a few large spoonfuls of the pasta water. Season with more black pepper and salt, and the juice of half a lemon.

Don't @ me Italy, I never called it a cacio e pepe!