Cacio e Pepe with Parmesan

TL;DR

We toured Rome in April, and as we were about to take part in the yearly Rome birthday celebrations, we were told that the pope had passed away.

Disappointed, we ended up in a small food joint for lunch with a plate of cacio e pepe. This dish instantly lifted our spirits!

Since then, Paul has been obsessed with preparing this pasta dish at home because it's a simple 3-ingredient meal. Cacio means “cheese” and pepe, “black pepper,” in Italian.

A proper cacio e pepe is prepared with pecorino romano cheese, a hard, salty sheep cheese from Rome. The problem is, they don't sell this cheese in our grocery store.

Instead, we opt for Italian Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, which is also a hard, salty cheese but from northern Italy.

Ingredient Notes

This is a simple dish, but the quality of ingredients is essential! Italian food quality is high standard, always.

• Spaghetti — Get a good spaghetti brand. We like Rummo, and we use Spaghetti No. 5 (because that's what we get), but you can use the classic Rummo Spaghetti is No. 3.
• Parmigiano Reggiano — This is proper Italian parmesan cheese. If you want your pasta to taste delicious, just like the ones in Italy, get REAL Parmigiano Reggiano made in Italy. Anything made outside of Italy just doesn't taste the same way. You can still prepare this dish with regular parmesan, but the main ingredient is flavorful cheese.
• Black Pepper — Your second most important ingredient in this recipe. Use freshly ground black pepper. We cook with our own homegrown fruity Tellicherry black pepper (it's a black peppercorn variety), but we use plenty of peppercorns, so we top up our pantry with these black peppercorns from India.
• Spaghetti Water — An overlooked pasta boiling by-product. Spaghetti water is the base of your cheesy pepper pasta sauce.

Note: Italian-made Parmesan is labeled as Parmigiano Reggiano DOP and they are aged a minimum of 12 months. For the best result, freshly grate the cheese.

Process Overview

Step 1

Cook spaghetti in salt water as per package instructions until firm and slightly chewy (it should be halfway raw).

Toast the ground black pepper in a skillet.

Step 2

Place the spaghetti over the pepper with some pasta water.

Step 3

Combine ground parmesan with pasta water to make a smooth, cheesy sauce.

Step 4

Pour the parmesan sauce over the spaghetti in the pan and mix it all in.

Reduce the sauce until the sauce clings to the pasta. Serve it hot as soon as it's done.

Serving

Cacio e pepe is served straight from the pan, still sizzling hot and creamy.

The sauce remains creamy as it's still hot, and you don't want it to lose its creaminess as you serve it. This is important and can make or break your cacio e pepe experience.

We like to drop some more ground black pepper and Parmigiano Reggiano over the plated dish for flavor and aesthetics.

Storing

This dish is best enjoyed freshly prepared and shouldn't be refrigerated. There is no point in preparing larger batches.

Fresh cacio e pepe is the way to go.