Pasta, rice and grains
Cacio e pepe
Roman pasta dressed only with grated Pecorino Romano, black pepper and starchy cooking water.
Cacio e pepe means cheese and pepper, and that is almost all there is to it. Long pasta, usually tonnarelli or spaghetti, is tossed with finely grated Pecorino Romano, plenty of freshly ground black pepper and some of its own cooking water, which turns the cheese into a smooth, creamy sauce. It is one of the classic pastas of Rome.
What goes in
- Pecorino Romano529%, Very finely grated.
- Tonnarelli or spaghetti847%, Long pasta.
- Black pepper16%, Freshly cracked, toasted.
- Pasta cooking water318%, Starch makes the sauce.
Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.
Made step by step
Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.
Step 1: Grate Grate the Pecorino as finely as possible. Step 2: Simmer Cook the pasta in less water than usual so it stays starchy. Step 3: Fry Toast cracked pepper in a dry pan and add a ladle of pasta water. Step 4: Melt Mix the cheese with a little cooled pasta water to a paste. Step 5: Melt Toss the drained pasta in the pepper pan, then stir in the cheese paste off the heat. Step 6: Serve Serve at once with more pepper and Pecorino. Finished Cacio e pepe, by share.
Shepherd food
The dish is often linked with the shepherds of the Roman countryside, who carried hard sheep's cheese and pepper because both kept well on long journeys. That story is plausible but hard to prove. What is certain is that cacio e pepe is a fixture of Roman trattorias and belongs to a family of pastas with gricia, carbonara and amatriciana that share Pecorino Romano.
Avoiding clumps
The difficulty is heat. If the pan is too hot, the cheese seizes into rubbery lumps. Cooks mix the grated cheese with a little cooled cooking water to make a paste first, then toss it with the drained pasta off the heat. The starch in the water helps the sauce cling. Pepper is toasted briefly in the pan to release its aroma.
Where it is used
The cheeses in it
Also part of it, and being written: Pecorino Romano (The only cheese in the dish.).
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Sources and further reading
Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Pecorino Romano: Jon Sullivan, Public domain, source