Cacio and Pepe is a classic pasta recipe you might find in many Italian restaurants. However, if you walk around the streets of Rome, you will surely find it in each and every menu of the capital since it has its roots in the Roman cuisine. Cacio is Roman dialect for “cheese”, in this case, pecorino cheese, and pepe is black pepper. Put it all together, and you get this classic of cucina romana, in which pasta is tossed with handfuls of cheese, a mouth-tingling amount of pepper, and a bit of the pasta water to create a creamy delicious sauce.
Thankfully, I don’t have a problem finding quality Italian cheeses at Mariano’s. You can find Pecorino Romano DOP aged over 10 months imported from Italy, which is perfect for this recipe. Remember, you want aged pecorino cheese to get a flavorful pasta!
It’s very important to use less water to cook pasta than usual It’s one of the secrets to get that famous creamy sauce pasta.
I recommend using long type pasta such as spaghetti or tonnaterlli, which is a square-ended pasta that’s the most common shape for cacio e pepe.
Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe
Ingredients
- 320/11 gr/oz spaghetti
- 200/7 gr/oz pecorino cheese
- 1 tsp black pepper freshly cracked
- 1 pinch kosher salt
Instructions
- Let’s start by grating all pecorino cheese and set aside. Next, crack fresh pepper with a mortar and add into a non-stick pan, low heat flame.
- Bring water to a boil. Season with salt; add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Meantime, add a ladle of the pasta water in the pan with pepper.
- Drain the pasta water into a separate bowl. Then, add the pasta to the pan with pepper.
- Gently mix pasta and add some reserved pasta water to finishing cooking the pasta, making sure pasta is never dried.
- While pasta is finishing cooking, start preparing pecorino cheese cream: add half of the grated pecorino in a bowl with some water and mix it with a whisk. Add more water if needed. Cream should be smooth and not watery.
- Remove skillet from heat. Add cream in pasta and keep mixing. Add rest of grated pecorino cheese. Serve hot and buon appetito!
Loved the recipe. Keep bringing more of such authentic Italian recipes.
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