Nachos can be a full meal containing all the food groups.Danielle Matar/The Globe and Mail
For a riff on the classic nachos, we've included a fantastic cacio e pepe recipe that uses vegetable chips, ricotta and salty pecorino romano cheese. These pair with beer and any sports event, but would equally be at home with champagne celebrations, which we will hopefully be having in our city soon.
The colours of the vegetable chips gives this dish a stunning look – it makes a terrific spicy, salty appetizer served with drinks. Cacio e pepe originated as a pasta in Rome and is made saucy with the pasta cooking water. As we do not have this, we used ricotta instead. Pecorino is a salty hard sheep's milk cheese that livens up the whole dish.
Ingredients
170-g package vegetable chips
1/2 cup Ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 to 2 tsp olive oil
Method
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Place half of the vegetable chips on a small baking sheet. Sprinkle over half of the ricotta and half of the grated cheese. Sprinkle with half of the pepper. Repeat with remaining chips, ricotta, grated cheeses and pepper. Bake until cheese is melted and chips begin to brown, about 3 to 5 minutes. Drizzle with olive oil.