Recipe: Cacio e Pepe (Traditional Dish from Rome, Italy)

Recipe Cacio e Pepe Rome Italy Travelblog JoyDellaVita

Cacio e Pepe. My favourite dish, yet it is so simple to recreate. Having a pretty same historical origin as Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe uses only basic ingredients, but well dosed. Also, finally another Recipe from around the World here!
Even though you will only need a hand full of ingredients for Cacio e Pepe, this gives you plenty possibilities to improve this dish. If you want, you can use either herbed butter for better seasoning or truffle oil for a decent truffle taste. It’s up to you!

In Rome, the birthplace of Cacio e Pepe, I already enjoyed these cheesy noodles at Roscioli, which were by absolute favourite, highly recommended, and at Osteria Angelino dal 1899, which tasted okay but I would not recommend going there.

Ingredients: Cacio e Pepe for 4 people

  • 250g Pasta (preferably Bucatini, otherwise Spaghetti, or thicker noodles like Bavette)
  • 100g Romano and/or Pecorino (Parmesan is fine, too) cheese, freshly grated
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (lower the amount if you want to also use herbed butter)
  • 1 tablespoon freshly crushed black pepper
  • good amount of salt for the water

Recipe: Cacio e Pepe

First up it’s time to cook your noodles. Cacio e Pepe is usually eaten with thick Spaghetti, also known as Bucatini (Adlink: buy them on Amazon here). As those aren’t available everywhere, regular Spaghetti or the thickest Spaghetti you can find will also do perfectly. But, it should be any long noodles, no Farfalle or Rigatoni, if you want to enjoy your Cacio e Pepe the traditional way. So, cook your noodles according to the labelled time with a good amount of salt in the water. Noodles for Cacio e Pepe shouldn’t be too al dente (too firm), in my opinion, so better cook them the amount they should be.

Shortly before the Pasta is ready, take a bigger bowl and combine the grated cheese, olive oil and black pepper. If you have, use 50g of Romano and 50g of Pecorino cheese, if you only have Parmesan it’s fine, too. Mix it well with 100 ml of the hot salted pasta water by using a fork. Be fast with mixing all together as you want the cheese to melt evenly in the liquid. Now add the Pasta to the bowl and continue to stir, make sure the Pasta is well covered with the cheesy sauce.

Serve your Cacio e Pepe Pasta immediately, top the individual plates with some more freshly grated Romano or Parmesan Cheese plus pepper and enjoy this effortless yet super Italian dish!

About

Outdoor Lifestyle Blogger Lisa JoyDellaVita

Lisa is a Blogger for more than a decade now, sharing her adventures exploring the world on JoyDellaVita, as well as excursions into the culinary world, sustainable choices, how to live a healthy active lifestyle but overall, how to enjoy a life full of joys.