Cacio e Pepe

Article by Layla Khoury-Hanold

Cacio e Pepe, which translates to cheese and pepper in Italian, is a classic Roman pasta dish made with spaghetti, Pecorino Romano and black pepper emulsified with starchy pasta water. Although it’s made with just a few ingredients, it can take a little practice to make a smooth, clump-free sauce. Ree Drummond’s take on cacio e pepe veers from tradition by adding butter and garlic, but it follows the same techniques for making the pan sauce. With Ree’s simple recipe, you’ll learn how to build flavor, how to incorporate the cheese to prevent clumping and the key technique for ensuring a smooth, silky sauce that coats every noodle.

How to Make Cacio e Pepe Like a Pro

Be sure to salt the pasta water. Salting the water helps flavor the spaghetti as it cooks. As the pasta releases starches, the salty water helps create a flavorful, starchy water that will later help emulsify the sauce. Don’t use too much water to cook the pasta to help concentrate the starch.

Don’t overcook the pasta. Cook the spaghetti just before it’s al dente and still quite chewy. You want the pasta to retain some bite and it will continue cooking once it’s added to the pan sauce.

Reserve pasta water to emulsify the sauce. Use a heatproof cup to reserve 2 cups of pasta water. You likely won’t need to add all of it, but it’s good to have extra on hand just in case.

Use a large saute pan to make the sauce. Using a large enough saute pan ensures you have enough room to toss the pasta in the sauce.

Add butter and grated garlic for extra flavor. Ree simmers melted butter and grated garlic with the pasta water to add extra flavor to the sauce. Melted butter also helps the cheese melt more easily into the sauce.

Add a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Use a pepper grinder to coarsely grind black peppercorns to ensure freshness and flavor. Since black pepper is one of the prominent ingredients in cacio e pepe, Ree adds a generous amount, but how much you add is a matter of personal preference.

Use tongs to transfer the pasta to the pan. Instead of draining the pasta with a colander, use tongs to transfer the spaghetti strands directly to the pan. The wet noodles add some starchy pasta water, plus it’s one less dish to wash.

Choose Pecorino Romano and finely grate. Cacio e pepe is traditionally made with Pecorino Romano, an aged sheep’s milk cheese whose sharp, salty flavor pairs well with the black pepper. If you don’t have Pecorino, you can substitute Parmesan in a pinch. Finely grating the cheese will help it melt quickly and evenly, which helps to prevent clumps.

Add the cheese a handful at a time and toss as you go. Add the Pecorino a handful at a time, tossing the pasta as you go to help prevent the cheese from clumping and ensure a smooth sauce.

Finish the cacio e pepe off the heat. Continue tossing the pasta until well coated, thinning with extra reserved pasta water if needed and seasoning to taste with more black pepper, if desired.

Cacio e Pepe Pronunciation

Cacio e pepe is pronounced CAH-choh eh PEH-peh the Italian way. The American pronunciation of cacio e pepe is Kaa-chee-oh ee PEH-pay.

What Is Cacio e Pepe?

Cacio e pepe is a classic Roman pasta dish that translates to cheese and pepper. Cacio e pepe is traditionally made with spaghetti, Pecorino Romano and fresh, coarsely ground black pepper, but sometimes butter or olive oil are added to create a glossier sauce and add flavor.

Best Pasta for Cacio and Pepe

Spaghetti is traditionally used to make cacio e pepe, but other long pasta like tonnarelli, bucatini or thick spaghetti can also be used. For the best results regardless of pasta shape, use bronze-cut pasta, which has a rough, porous texture that helps the sauce to better cling to the noodles.

Pecorino Versus Parmesan

Pecorino and Parmesan are both hard, aged, salty cheeses but Pecorino is made with sheep’s milk and Parmesan is made with cow’s milk. Pecorino has a grassy, earthy flavor profile with a sharp saltiness and touch of tanginess while Parmesan has more of a nutty, sweeter flavor profile. Pecorino Romano is traditionally used for cacio e pepe, where its sharp saltiness plays well with the coarsely ground black pepper.