Cacio e Pepe
Two ingredients, one technique, endless opportunity to get it wrong. This cacio e pepe recipe uses a Pecorino slurry made off the heat, the trick Roman trattorias rely on to guarantee a creamy sauce instead of a stringy clump.
Photograph credit: Spaghetti, cacio e pepe & bitter leaf salad - Tutto 2024-04-04 by Andy Li · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Don't Make These Mistakes
Cracked peppercorns, not pre-ground pepper. The volatile oils that make this dish sing evaporate within days of grinding.
Let the pasta water cool for 60 seconds before mixing the paste — boiling water will curdle the cheese on contact.
Some Pecorino is fiercely salty. Taste before salting the pasta water.
Photograph credit: Spaghetti, cacio e pepe & bitter leaf salad - Tutto 2024-04-04 by Andy Li · CC0 1.0 · Wikimedia
Cooking Cacio e Pepe
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Cook the pasta in just 1.5 litres of lightly salted water — the smaller volume makes the water far starchier, which is your emulsifier.
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While it cooks, toast the cracked pepper in a dry pan over medium heat for 45 seconds until it smells sharp and floral. Set aside.
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Put the Pecorino in a bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of pasta water that has cooled for a minute and stir into a smooth, thick paste, adding more water a teaspoon at a time.
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Drain the pasta 1 minute early, reserving 250 ml of water, and toss it in the pepper pan off the heat for 30 seconds to cool slightly.
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Add the Pecorino paste and toss hard, loosening with pasta water until the sauce turns creamy and coats each strand.
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Serve immediately with an extra grinding of pepper.
Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.
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Why It Works
Pecorino Romano is high in casein, which clumps aggressively above 70°C / 158°F. Making a cool paste with a little pasta water first coats each cheese particle in starch, so it disperses instead of seizing when it meets the hot pasta.
After You've Cooked It
Does not keep — the emulsion breaks within hours. Make only what you will eat.
What to Serve Alongside
- A cold Frascati Superiore is the Roman default
- Serve with puntarelle or a chicory salad in anchovy dressing
- Finish with a shot of espresso
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Focaccia Genovese, Rosemary Focaccia, Tuscan Panzanella.
Common Questions About Cacio e Pepe
Why did my Cacio e Pepe turn oily or grainy instead of creamy?
The cheese seized rather than melted, almost always from too much heat or too little starchy pasta water. Take the pan off the heat before adding the cheese, add it gradually while tossing, and loosen with more of the reserved pasta water rather than trying to fix it with more cheese, which makes a seized sauce worse.
Cacio e Pepe Nutrition Facts
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. Sodium is not given, because the salt for the cooking water is in the ingredient list but most of it is poured away with the water, so no figure from the list would be honest. How the figures are worked out.
Vegetarian when made with a hard cheese made without animal rennet in place of the pecorino romano.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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