Easy Cacio e Pepe recipe

This is our favorite Cacio e Pepe recipe. Make pasta and black pepper sauce in the restaurant in 15 minutes!

Converting to “cheese and pepper” is the perfect dish for a cozy evening and I promise you will be amazed at how something so simple will taste so incredibly delicious. This was Adam’s favorite ordering dish when visiting Rome, Italy. It’s simple, but it’s not heavy at all with a velvety, rich sauce.

This classic Roman pasta makes the perfect weekday meal! For another classic pasta, we also love this recipe for pasta made with egg yolks.

Key Ingredients

• pasta: For traditional cacio e pepe, you need a hearty long pasta dish. Tonnarelli, spaghetti and Bucatini are all great choices. (We used Bucatini for photos in this post.) Tonnarelli is similar to spaghetti but has a square shape rather than a circle. Bucatini is similar, but it has a cylindrical shape with a hole in the middle, which is perfect for fixing the sauce. A short pasta shape works, but choose something like Rigatoni that holds easily on the sauce. For homemade, see our fresh pasta recipe.
• Pecorino Romano cheese: This classic Italian sheep’s milk cheese is a must-have for authentic Cacio e Pepe. It’s similar to Parmigiano-Reggiano, but has a clearer, saltier and sloppy flavor. You can usually find it next to the parmesan cheese on the cheese section. While you can use Parmigiano-Reggiano as a substitute, your sauce won’t have the same classic bold flavor. Skip the pre-grained cheese for this recipe (and won’t melt).
• Black pepper: The name of this dish actually means “cheese and pepper”, so a lot of black pepper is essential. For best flavor, use fresh pepper. The rougher grinding works great, adding some texture and spicy kicks. You can also use mortar and pestle to crack the whole pepper.
• Olive oil and butter: A small amount of olive oil and cold unsalted butter are the secret to the perfect emulsified sauce made at home. They help cheese and pasta blend into a silky shine sauce and prevent it from clumping.

Find the complete recipe in the measurements below.

My Tips for Homemade Cacio e Pepe

Tip 1: Preparation is everything. Since this recipe will come soon, you want to prepare everything before you start. Finely grind your Pecorino Romano, grind the black pepper, and measure the cold butter. Once the pasta is cooked, there is no time for these things.

Tip 2: Toss with a wide frying pan. While some Cacio e Pepe recipes recommend using bowls, we found that a warm and wide skillet is the best tool for work. Just like when we made Carbonara, it gives you plenty of room to throw away pasta and sauce ingredients.

Tip 3: Build a base with olive oil, butter and pasta water. While your pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil with black pepper until the aroma wakes up. Then turn off the heat and wait until the pasta is ready. This step has two purposes: It roasts black pepper, brings more flavor, and heats the skillet to prepare it for tossing pasta and sauce. Once the pasta is ready, add some hot, starchy pasta water and cold butter to the skillet to create the ideal foundation for your seasoning before throwing it away.

Tip 4: Be careful with the cheese. This is the most important tip! After adding pasta to the skillet, grated Pecorino Romano is the most important. A fine grating is essential because it allows the cheese to melt quickly into a creamy soy sauce. If the cheese is too rough, it will chunk and turn into a sticky mess. A miniature aircraft is ideal, but the smallest hole in the box works as well.

Tip 5: Don’t be afraid to add more water. Starchy hot pasta water makes Cacio E Pepe sauce so magical. When you throw pasta with cheese, if you see it will be chunky or look too thick (photo below), add another tablespoon or two tablespoons of hot pasta water. Keep throwing and you’ll see the sauce changes as it perfectly covers every piece of pasta.

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