Cacio e pepe

Name: Cacio e pepe
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 2 plates
Cuisine: roman
Ingredients: 200 g Pasta; 60 g Pecorino Romano, very finely grated; 1.5 tsp Black pepper; 1 tsp Salt, for the water, go light — the cheese is salty

Pecorino, pepper and pasta water — a Roman emulsion that looks like nothing and fails if you rush it.

Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen. Native name preserved: Cacio e pepe.

0 people cooked this in the public kitchen yet. Kitchen-tested by I Want Some Food. Not a purchased rating.

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Prep: 5 min
Cook: 15 min
Total: 20 min
Difficulty: Medium
Spice: Mild
Cost: Cheap nightUnder $8 USD · indicative, not a store price

Know it before you cook it

Source photograph of Cacio e pepe. Not official I Want Some Food pixel artwork. — Photo: Blackcat via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. Source

About

Cacio e pepe is three ingredients and a technique. You toast pepper, finish pasta in a little water, and toss in finely grated pecorino off the heat so it melts into a sauce instead of clumping into concrete. Cream is not invited. If it seizes, you added cheese to a pan that was still screaming.

Ingredients

Servings

Pasta200 g
Pecorino Romano, very finely grated60 g
Black pepper7.4 ml
Salt, for the water, go light — the cheese is salty4.9 ml

Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.

Steps

Step 1
Boil pasta in well-salted water until just shy of al dente. Scoop out a mug of cloudy water.
10 min
Step 2
Toast cracked pepper in a wide pan 30 seconds. Add a ladle of pasta water.
1 min
Step 3
Add pasta. Toss. Take off the heat. Rain in pecorino a handful at a time, tossing and adding water until it turns glossy, not grainy.
2 min
Tip: If it clumps, more hot water and motion, not more heat.

Adapt this recipe

The canonical recipe stays intact. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are maths, not AI.

Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 24 August.

Substitutions

Pecorino → Mostly pecorino plus a little parmigiano
Milder. Still a Roman plate if pecorino leads.

Tips

Grate the cheese like dust. Chunks will not melt.
A little leftover cooking water in a jug is cheaper than panic.

History & culture

Lazio trattorie and the pasta people order to test a kitchen. Tonnarelli or spaghetti. Pecorino Romano should taste like sheep.

Shepherd food that restaurants made precious. The modern creamy-looking plate is still just cheese, pepper and starch.

Traditional

Provenance: Editorial adaptation. Original editorial adaptation for I Want Some Food. Not copied from another recipe site. Official recipe photography is pending. Photograph: Blackcat via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spaghetto%20cacio%20e%20pepe%20Roma%202018.jpg

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