Spaghetti Mizithra (Greek-Style Spaghetti)

This Greek-style spaghetti mizithra is the famous Old Spaghetti Factory dish reverse-engineered down to the bones. Five ingredients, no sauce, no cooking beyond boiling pasta and browning butter. The whole technique rests on two things: getting that butter to a deep nut-brown color, and using the right cheese blend. Done right, this is one of the simplest restaurant-quality pasta dishes you can make at home.

Kasseri cheese is the star and the secret. It’s a semi-hard sheep’s milk cheese from Greece with a slightly tangy, salty bite somewhere between provolone and feta. Half a pound goes in alongside a quarter pound of grated Romano, which adds the saltier sharpness and Italian backbone. Together they melt into the hot pasta and browned butter into something far more complex than either cheese alone.

The browned butter (beurre noisette in French kitchens, brown butter to everyone else) is the technique to nail. A full cup of butter goes into a skillet over medium heat and cooks past melted, past simmering, until the milk solids at the bottom turn deeply golden brown and the kitchen smells like toasted hazelnuts. Pull it the second the color shifts. Black butter is burnt butter, and it tastes acrid.

Chef Tips

• Buy real Kasseri from a Greek deli or Mediterranean grocer. Generic ‘Greek cheese’ substitutes don’t deliver the same tang.
• Cook the spaghetti one minute under al dente. It finishes in the warm cheese.
• Watch the butter constantly during browning. It goes from gold to burnt in twenty seconds.
• Toss the pasta with cheese first, then drizzle the hot butter on top so it melts everything at the table.

Variations

• Swap Kasseri for Mizithra cheese itself if you can find it (the original).
• Add a clove of crushed garlic to the butter as it browns for an aromatic boost.
• Top with toasted breadcrumbs for crunch.
• Stir in fresh chopped basil with the parsley for a Greek-Italian fusion.