Cacio e Pepe

Published on Friday, June 8, 2007, by Caitlin McGrath / Edit Post

This is a dish that’s much more than the sum of its parts: spaghetti with pecorino and black pepper. It’s an old Roman preparation known as pasta cacio e pepe, and traditionally it’s nothing more than hot, freshly drained spaghetti tossed with grated Pecorino Romano, coarsely crushed black pepper, and a ladleful of the pasta cooking water. At its best, it’s a lovely marriage of simple ingredients, with cheese coating each strand of spaghetti, forming an even, almost silky coating.

Some keys to doing it well: Use a mortar and pestle or a heavy frying pan to coarsely crush a generous amount of black peppercorns. Use high-quality cheese, and don’t grate it too finely or it will clump. Toss everything together quickly, with plenty of pepper. If you must gild the lily, the addition of a couple of ounces of diced pancetta, sautéed, per pound of pasta is a terrific addition, insists Old Spice; use a short, tubular pasta to catch those bits of pancetta.

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  • Tried this tonight, but winged the recipe. That was a mistake, I added way too much cracked pepper and it seriously made me sweat. Still pretty tasty, even as I made it.
    A squeeze of lemon helped with the over pepe-ization of the dish, and made me think of doing it again with lemon zest and chopped parsley. I'll try the plain pepper and romano version too, though I will measure the peppercorns...+READ

    Tried this tonight, but winged the recipe. That was a mistake, I added way too much cracked pepper and it seriously made me sweat. Still pretty tasty, even as I made it.
    A squeeze of lemon helped with the over pepe-ization of the dish, and made me think of doing it again with lemon zest and chopped parsley. I'll try the plain pepper and romano version too, though I will measure the peppercorns next time!-COLLAPSE

  • The only other suggestion I would make is to add some of the pasta cooking water to emulsify the sauce. Been to Cacio e Pepe too and its really great there.

  • at the restaurant Cacio e Pepe in the East Village, they toss it in a big wheel of cheese and then serve it table side. So simple, yet delicious!