Cacio e Pepe Pasta Recipe
By
Kate Ramos
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Those of you who think all pasta sauces are long-simmered affairs will be relieved to discover that this incredibly simple dish requires only four ingredients and a few minutes of your time. This pasta, with its sting of cheese and bite of pepper, proves that simple is by no means boring.
This recipe was featured as part of our Winter Cabin Fever story.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 pounds dried spaghetti
- 3 1/2 cups Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated on the small holes of a box grater (about 8 ounces)
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cut into tablespoon-size pieces
- 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
- Bring a large pot (at least 12 quarts) of heavily salted water to a boil over high heat. Add pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain pasta, reserving 2 cups of the cooking water.
- Return pasta and cooking water to the pot and place over low heat. Add remaining ingredients and stir until cheese and butter have melted and formed a creamy sauce, about 5 minutes. Season with salt, and serve with additional cheese if desired.
Beverage pairing: Iron Horse Vineyards Rosato di Sangiovese, California. A white wine might be the first thing that comes to mind for a dish flavored with spice and cheese, but the bright red berry fruit in this rosé makes a nice contrast with all the black pepper, and the wine has plenty of vibrancy to stand up to the cheese.
I made it and is delicious but i added some heavy cream, just a little bit and we ate it with some chicken tenderloins primavera!
2 lbs spaghetti = 6 to 8 servings? More like 8-12 servings! Portion control, people!
variation - crack raw egg over cooked pasta and the grated cheese.. toss
Butter?? Where did you learn this? Let the butter in Milan, this is a Roman dish! Holy Mama!
Yes, no butter.
Si, sensa burro. Grate the cheese on a micro plane grater, mix some cheese with pasta water, stir. Again. Again. Drop the spaghetti into the pan with the cheese and pasta water. Add freshly ground pepper at a rough grated size, not fine.
Serve.
mi scusi - senza burro!
Burro??? Dove avete imparato questo? Lasci il burro a Milano, ciò è un piatto romano!!! Mamma santa!
This is a great dish when done right. Had this in Italy many times; particularly popular in the Rome area with the Cacio di Roma cheese.
I really can't believe any of you consider the Old Spaghetti Factory to be Italian food. You must love Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill as well.
Also, I agree with not necessarily following the instructions on pasta packages - the good old taste test should be the way to go to dtermine whether it is 'al dente'
Some of you guys are questioning the amount of ingredients and the quality of them as well. I was in Italy last year, and had cacio e pepe on many occasions. I loved it. I tried emulating back home, here in Sydney. The recipe I chose, had I used top-quality ingredients, would have been the same as what I had in Italy. So, I definitely agree with the finest quality ingredients line of argument.. Thanks for the input people gave - I will not use any oil at all next time, and will try and heat the plates beforehand. I would not add anything else to it, just the black pepper and the cheese. I think the cheese is key. A cheap supermarket pecorino just won't cut it. No taste.
My two cents: my grandparents came here from Abruzzi, so I should respect Italian authenticity, but I don't care -- I like pasta with butter and Romano. It's one of my favorite meals. Maybe olive oil, hot starchy water or guanciale are more authentic, but give me butter.
And MacArthur Mike, you are on to something. Fulvi Romano is the best Romano cheese out there! When I first tasted it a few years ago, I suddenly remembered what real Romano cheese tastes like. Just do a google search for fulvi romano and you'll find several online stores that sell it. I've bought it from Galucci's, Capri Flavors, Zabar's, and Zingerman's.
At the Old Spaghetti Factory in Atlanta they refer to that dish as the "Homer" after the poet's supposed fondness of it., Lovetheson.
For years I lived near an Old Spaghetti Factory (a chain mostly in the west). They have a wonderful dish called Mizithra Cheese and Browned Butter. I no longer live near one of the restaurants so I try to replicate this at home by tossing some cooked pasta (al dente) in a skillet with butter that has been melted and lightly browned (but not burned) and topped with grated Mizithra or Ricotta Salata cheese. Add some freshly ground pepper and personally I think it is addictive. Added garlic is also good. To make it a little healthier I now use about half melted browned butter and some olive oil - but it loses some of that buttery flavor. Ricotta Salata is easier to find than Mizithra and the taste is just about the same.
Probably not. I was thinking some grilled chicken, myself.
Would it be weird to add shrimp to this?
Boy! If ONLY overcooked pasta were really the worst thing in this world! Why would anyone add oil to pasta that's already been coated with sauce? Seems silly to me.
Since ALL pasta is a little different, I have ALWAYS taken one or two noodles and actually eaten them to know for a fact whether they are just right or need to be boiled a bit longer.
The WORST thing in the world is OVERCOOKED pasta!
Right? Right !! Our family LOVES Barrilla.
It seems to stay al dente' ! We truly love it.
The kids eat it plain with butter.
If I use any other "type" it tends to always get "soggy."
Thus, the kids won't touch it.
P.S.....
If you can find it, Sini Fulvi Pecorino Romano is still made in the countryside near Rome and not in Sardinia.
I have to disagree with the poster who puts oil in the salted water when boiling. This does nothing for the taste and actually makes the noodle too slick for the sauce to stick to. Oil should only be added after draining and saucing. Also, with the sauce, it is not wise to rinse the pasta either after draining (with any sauce for that matter) as rinsing it washes away the starch that allows the sauce to stick to the pasta.
Having recently returned from living in Rome for a while, this is in fact the standard pasta of Lazio/Rome. There, instead of butter, folks use guanciale, or pork jowl. Failing that, use pancetta. Simply melt the diced pork pieces in a tablespoon of good olive oil at a slow heat, rendering the fat -- it should take around 15 minutes not letting the meat harden into nuggets. Meanwhile, do the pasta al dente, and drain really well. Have a hot bowl ready or use the pasta pot. Put pasta in bowl, add half of the pecorino romano cheese so it melts/adheres, then add the fat and pork, toss, then add the pepper and toss. Add cooking water if dry. Serve.
The heated bowl really matters, as does adding the cheese first.This is the basic master recipe for pasta amitriciana and pasta carbonara, which are really just variations on this one.
Pietro is right that the success of a recipe with only two ingredients besides the pasta depends on the quality of the ingredients. Of course, the quality of the pasta is important too. I find the best for this is Latini Senatore Cappelli, drained very wet. Its starchy water mixes beautifully with the cheese. But, Pietro, there are still makers of pecorino romano in Lazio. I buy it at Volpetti in Testaccio. Clearly Pietro and I are of the traditional school that holds other ingredients are unnecessary. This is a chasm that will never be bridged, but I hope that anyone who gets really creative will at least change the name of the dish.
Been making something like this for years on empty-fridge night-- never dreamed someone would think to formalize it in a recipe! A few (IMHO) improvements: use fusilli instead of spaghetti, b/c everything sticks better; a couple of dashes of cholula or frank's hot sauce, plus the pepper, supplies layers of different kinds of heat that remain surprisingly mild b/c of the cheese; use trader joe's blend of parmesan and romano rather than just one cheese-- sharpness of romano plus creaminess of parmesan is ideal. Oh, almost forgot: olive oil and stir! (BTW, Pietro, "success of the recipe really depends...." Oh, come on. This is not haute cuisine. This, again, is empty-fridge night/comfort food! Would you refuse my version because TJ's parmesan is Argentine? Too, too fussy.)
Well, the success of the recipe really dependes on the quality of the pecorino and the freshness of the pepper. Pecorino Romano ( actually it's made in Sardinia as there's no one left in Latium to make it...) should be taken from the very large cheeses not teh little ones. No butter please.
I used to make something similar for a quick lunch. I used olive oil, though. I can't really picture this with butter. Also, I like using red pepper flakes, not black pepper. Either one is good, though.
ummm...I have a recipe that's very close to this.
I make the pasta in salted water with a bit of oil in it, drain and cooled by cold running water in a strainer.
Melt some butter, 2 tbsp, add garlic(gotta have it), after a few, add drained pasta and stirfor a few.
Add romano cheese till pasta is lightly coated, add salt and pepper to taste, I just use pepper.
Add some strong lean meat if you like, prosciutto, lean ham, etc...
Enjoy.
I understand that butter is being rehabilitated, and I'm all for that, but I have simply never heard of putting it in cacio e pepe. Even olive oil is unnecessary. Butter and parmigiano mix well, but butter and pecorino are on different wavelengths.
This recipe will produce pasta mush. The pasta should be drained even more al dente than usual. Also, you can't say how much cooking water you'll need. It depends on how absorbent the pasta is (the better the quality, the more absorbent the pasta and the creamier the water). I like to reserve all the water either by lifting the pasta out with a hand-held colander or other instrument or by draining over a bowl. Then I add handfuls of cheese and ladlefuls of water in alternation till I like the feel.
As for cooking according to package directions, they're a point of departure. Set the timer for at least a minute less and start checking a minute or two before that. Usually you can tell by how the spaghetti hang on a wooden spoon whether they're done.
Finally, two teaspoons seems pretty stingy with the pepper.
Hahha....JeMange, so true!!(about needing a recipe) It looks tasty though :)
Instead of butter, I usually add an egg which thickens up and adheres the sauce to the pasta.
JeMange, I guess how you cook your pasta depends on your attitude to cooking. People who don't know how to cook or who are new to Italian cuisine will follow packet instructions. I'm not Italian, but my Italian friends are unanimous in their agreement that overcooking pasta is an unforgivable crime. I think they all do your described method of sampling a noodle to adjust the cooking time!
Honestly, you need a recipe to prepare past with butter and pecorino? And, I agree - following the directions would yield overcooked pasta. Does anyone who cooks pasta actually follow the cooking directions or does everyone sample a noodle or two before yanking it off the heat and draining?
I agree with medgirl.
If the pasta is cooked according to packet instructions and then cooked for a further 5 minutes while the sauce forms, won't it be too soft. Should you undercook the pasta in the first step so that it is al dente when served?