Tonight Alex was out of town so I (Max) got to cook without her.  I made veal milanese (breaded veal cutlet, topped with argula and tomatoes) and one of my favorite, easy pasta dishes: cacio et pepe (pasta with salt and pepper).

Pasta Cacio et Pepe

The ingredients for cacio et pepe are pretty straight forward: dry pasta, butter, pecorino romano, parmegiano, and freshly ground pepper.  We used perciatelli No. 6 pasta (which is a medium size tube of pasta: it’s pretty cool because the buttery cheesey sauce gets inside of it).  Essentially you cook the pasta and then melt a lot of butter, add the cooked pasta, along with some pasta water and then mix in your grated romano and parmigiano cheese.  Final step, lots of freshly ground pepper.  DON’T add salt until you have tasted it (the pecorino romano can be super salty and if you just add salt without tasting the pasta, it can way toor salty.  (Sorry there aren’t more pictures, but it was just me and I forgot to take photos of the boiling water…)

Veal Milanese

For the Veal Milanese, I did a classic breading mix: first dip in flour, then in a mix of egg and milk, and finally in panko breadcrumbs mixed with grated parmesan.  Then I sauteed them on top of the stove for one minute each side (till brown) and finished them in the oven for 20 minutes.  To plate I squeezed a slice of lemon on top of the cutlet and then topped with argula and chopped grape tomatoes.  I had never had veal before and while I liked it, honestly I think I like breaded chicken better.  The veal was much chewier than chicken (but also had more taste, which was a plus).

For dessert, we had Halloween cupcakes (mom made the cupcakes; I decorated them) and chocolate chunk cookies (Alex made those yesterday…and unfortunately she gave most of them to her soccer team!! Fortunately mom set aside a few for us.)