Does the parmesan bowl really add all that much to Cacio e Pepe?

[Soffit]

Or can you achieve similar results by adding a small piece into the cheese? Personally, I find there is no discernable difference.

I told my Italian partner about this thread:

1. Snort of impatience at serving Cacio i Pepe in a cheese rind.

1. Miami is not the best place to experience amazing Italian food.

1. Don't add truffle to it. That's not the same dish. C&P is supreme in its simplicity.

1. If you want a fancy pasta dish there are so many other things you could do. Partner unwilling to give specifics but muttered a lot about letting the ingredients shine and not wanking about with truffle.

1. Partner horrified that OP found Italian food in Italy underwhelming and asked if OP might have been eating in 'tourist shitholes'.

Soz OP. Buon appetito!

Best pasta I had in Rome was always in student canteens

10 Italians in a room talking about how to make a particular dish the 'right way' will end up with 10 different recipes.

Just here to say that cacio e pepe is divine!

@fishingpaintings Thanks for sharing your partner's insights. I feel I have already made this dish a hundred times already just by talking about it! I don't doubt that Miami is not the place to go for Italian food.

Wrt where I have eaten in Italy, I have worked there for long periods of time all over Italy on more occasions that I can even count. Some of my meals may have been at touristy places at the start, probably not so on subsequent occasions.
I have eaten great food (not pasta) in Turin, Genoa, Pisa and many other places. The worst meal I had was in a tourist trap opposite the Duomo in Florence. It was so very bad.

However, there have been instances where local staff have taken me out to chichetti places where there were no tourists around and I have found it uninspiring. I went to the locally famous places in the Dolomites and I never really rated it.

With Italian food, it is hard to eat really well if you have food restrictions.
I only eat 100% pescatarian/vegetarian when I am not at home which rules out large sections of the menus. I am also teetotal so my recollections are not biased by good alcohol.

I think the best Italian food is home cooked TBH.
We’ve given up going to restaurants for Christmas, Ferragosto, Easter etc. because none of the staff wants to be there and the “special menu” is usually a disappointment.
My lovely Italian MIL was such a good cook that no restaurant could compare. Nice to receive compliments from family and guests but she felt duty bound to cook on all feast days.

There are some things I refuse to cook at home like lamb, rabbit and live seafood. So we book restaurants with those on the menu.

The most memorable pasta I’ve eaten was from an experimental lady chef in La Spezia. Fresh pasta with branzino, cream and lavender.