Cacio e Pepe: One of the Four Roman Pastas - CJ Eats Recipes (2024)

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Cacio e Pepe: this traditional Roman pasta (one of the classic four!) is so simple (literally the name means CHEESE & PEPPER) and comes together in under 20 minutes – making it the ideal pasta night dish!

Watch the Cacio e Pepe Recipe Video Below!

Ingredients for Cacio e Pepe

Here are the ingredients you’ll need for the Roman classic, Cacio e Pepe! While it is a simple dish (in terms of ingredients), there is some technique involved which I’ll explain below to make sure you don’t end up with a clumpy mess!

• 6ozspaghetti
• 2ozpecorino cheesegrated
• 1cupreserved pasta watercooled to 150F (70C)
• 1/2tbspwhole black peppercorns

Cacio e Pepe: Recipe Instructions

Toasting Black Peppercorns

Begin by toasting the whole, black peppercorns in a pan over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until toasted and fragrant. You’ll know they are toasted when you can see the oils appear on the peppercorn. Remove them and then coarsely grind in a mortar and pestle.

Grate Pecorino Cheese

For the cheese, I’m using finely grated fresh Pecorino Romano cheese, which is the traditional cheese used in Cacio e Pepe. Add the grated cheese to the coarse ground black pepper with the heat OFF.

Reserve the pasta water!

Cook the pasta of choice (spaghetti, rigatoni, mezzi rigatoni, bucatini are all great choices) to al dente. About half way through the cooking process, reserve a cup of the starchy pasta water. Then, set the water on the counter to cool for at least 3-4 minutes. If you have a thermometer, you want to let the water cool to around 150F (70C).

The biggest mistake I’ve seen people make (I have done this many times), is add the pasta water to the cheese and pepper when the water is too hot (boiling). At these temperatures, the water will turn the cheese clumpy and oily, which is counterintuitive to the silky, emulsified sauce we are going for. The water temperature is a key step in this recipe!

Form the Cacio e Pepe sauce

Once the water has cooled, add 1/4 cup of pasta water to the sauce at a time until a smooth, emulsified sauce is achieved

Mix and emulsify

Using a spatula (still off the heat), mix vigorously until you’ve created a smooth sauce that is free of clumps. If you are seeing clumps in the sauce, then unfortunately the water was too hot. I would suggest removing the clumpy cheese at this point, adding more cheese and cooled pasta water until the sauce is achieved.

Add pasta and combine

Once the sauce is finished, the pasta should be done cooking and ready to combine with the sauce. Finally, drain the pasta, let it cool for a few seconds and add it to the sauce. I’ve also created a perfect sauce but then added pasta that was too hot and it ended up clumping my sauce! Let it cool for a few seconds to avoid this, then add the pasta and mix well with the sauce.

At this point, if the sauce is too thick, add a couple tablespoons of pasta water to thin out the sauce and continue mixing until you achieve the correct consistency. Plate it up into some warmed bowls and enjoy!

If you liked this recipe, check out some of the most popular pasta recipes on the blog! Please consider giving a rating and commenting down below what you thought of the recipe! It really helps out the blog!

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