Cacio e pepe, a Roman classic Recipe
When you’re in a real hurry or just too tired to cook anything too elaborate, here’s a great solution: cacio e pepe, literally ‘cheese and pepper’, a pasta dish usually made with spaghetti, bucatini or—my personal favorite—tonnarelli, a kind of square spaghetti better known Stateside by its Abruzzese name, spaghetti alla chitarra. This old-time Roman dish has become fashionable lately, and you’ll find it on the menus of the priciest Italian restaurants. But don’t let that turn you off—there’s actually nothing pretentious at all about cacio e pepe.
Great for a weeknight dinner or spur of the moment spaghettata, to make cacio e pepe you simply toss just-boiled pasta with lots of grated pecorino romano and freshly ground black pepper. With only three ingredients—four, if you count the pinch of salt for the pasta water—nothing could be more quintessentially Italian in its exquisite simplicity. And yet cacio e pepe is not that easy to master. Get your technique wrong, and this dish can turn into a rather unattractive mess. But no worries, let me give you a few tips that will have you whipping up your own perfect cacio e pepe in no time.
Ingredients
Serves 4-6
500g (1 lb) tonnarelli, spaghetti, bucatini or another long pasta
250g (1/2 lb) freshly grated pecorino cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt, for boiling the pasta
Directions
Boil the pasta in well salted water, drain it—but not too well—and pour it into a large, warmed mixing bowl.
Add the grated pecorino and lots of freshly ground pepper, and mix very well until the hot water that clings to the pasta melts the cheese to make a kind of creamy sauce.
Serve on heated plates, topped f you want with more grated pecorino and another healthy grinding of pepper.
Notes on Cacio e pepe
Your mixing technique is the key to success. The most important thing to remember for a successful cacio e pepe is not to stop mixing too soon. At first, the cheese will tend to clump together, but don’t be discouraged. Keep on mixing vigorously, adding a bit of cooking water if you need to so that the pasta slithers around freely, until the cheese melts entirely and clings uniformly to the pasta. If, on the other hand, the pasta is too wet for the cheese to cling to the pasta, add more grated cheese. On the other hand, you shouldn’t take too long either, as the pasta will be cooling off the whole time. If you take too long, the cheese will begin to harden and your pasta will start to get cold. So be energetic in your stirring. I find that tongs are perfect for this job, but the traditional pasta fork will do you just fine. Getting this mixing business right is a bit tricky at first, but it will come with a bit of practice.
To make things even trickier, for a truly authentic cacio e pepe the pasta and cheese should be mixed ‘a freddo‘, i.e., not over a flame. It’s said that the intense heat of a burner will denature the flavor and texture of the cheese and risk overcooking the pasta. Even so, I like to warm the mixing bowl beforehand by placing it on top of the pot for the last minute or two while the pasta is still boiling, then re-place the bowl on top of the pot, off heat but still steaming, while mixing up the pasta with its cheese and pepper condimento. The gentle warmth of the steam helps the cheese to melt and ensure that you won’t be eating lukewarm pasta. Of course, you need to leave the pasta water in the pot, so either use a pasta pot with a perforated insert or fish the pasta out of the water with a pasta fork, instead of pouring the pasta and water into a colander. (A good practice, in my opinion, no matter what pasta you’re making.)
If you find this all a little intimidating, a practically foolproof if not entirely DOC technique is to melt a bit of butter with a ladleful of the cooking water in a skillet, to which you add your pasta and then your cheese and pepper. You sauté the whole thing over very gentle heat until it all comes together. This keeps the pasta nice and warm, and you can take your time mixing.
There are some variant techniques for making cacio e pepe. Some recipes call for you to mix the grated cheese and ground pepper in the bowl before adding the pasta on top. In my experience, this leads to too much of the melted cheese sticking to the bottom of the bowl rather than the pasta. (Some sticking is inevitable—feel free to scrape up the melted cheese with a spatula and top your pasta with it.) Some recipes also tell you to add a bit of butter or un filo d’olio before or after you mix the pasta. I rather like the creaminess of the butter variation, but I like even better the austere (but very tasty) simplicity of just pasta, cheese and pepper.
And finally, some people mix pecorino with the milder parmigiano-reggiano. To me, however wonderful parmigiano is, the salty ‘bite’ of pecorino is one of the attractions of the dish, so I wouldn’t dilute it with anything else. But, as they say, de gustibus non eat disputandum. If you like the idea of any of these variations on cacio e pepe, by all means try them and let us know how you like them!
Cacio e pepe, a Roman classic
Ingredients
- 500g (1 lb) tonnarelli, spaghetti, bucatini or another long pasta
- 250g (1/2 lb) freshly grated pecorino cheese
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Salt, for boiling the pasta
Instructions
Boil the pasta in well salted water, drain it—but not too well—and pour it into a large, warmed mixing bowl.
Add the grated pecorino and lots of freshly ground pepper, and mix very well until the hot water that clings to the pasta melts the cheese to make a kind of creamy sauce.
Serve on heated plates, topped f you want with more grated pecorino and another healthy grinding of pepper.
Notes
Your mixing technique is the key to success. The most important thing to remember for a successful cacio e pepe is not to stop mixing too soon. At first, the cheese will tend to clump together, but don't be discouraged. Keep on mixing vigorously, adding a bit of cooking water if you need to so that the pasta slithers around freely, until the cheese melts entirely and clings uniformly to the pasta. If, on the other hand, the pasta is too wet for the cheese to cling to the pasta, add more grated cheese. On the other hand, you shouldn't take too long either, as the pasta will be cooling off the whole time. If you take too long, the cheese will begin to harden and your pasta will start to get cold. So be energetic in your stirring. I find that tongs are perfect for this job, but the traditional pasta fork will do you just fine. Getting this mixing business right is a bit tricky at first, but it will come with a bit of practice.
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