TABELIA

AUTHENTIC ITALIAN RECIPE

Authentic Cacio e Pepe

Authentic Cacio e Pepe
Difficulty★★★★☆ Prep5 min Cook15 min servings2

One of Rome’s oldest pasta dishes, made with Pecorino Romano and black pepper. The ingredient list is short, but a stable, creamy emulsion requires precise heat control.

Recipe developed and reviewed by the Tabelia Editorial TeamUpdated
100/ 100

AUTHENTICITY SCORE

Authenticity Score

This is the standard recipe, exactly as it’s made where it comes from — the highest Authenticity Score possible. Substituting ingredients changes this score; the app shows exactly how, ingredient by ingredient.

Ingredients (2 servings)

  • Tonnarelli or Spaghetti200 g
  • Pecorino Romano70 g
  • Black pepper, coarsely ground0.5 tsp

Method

110 min

Boil the pasta water

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and season it with less salt than usual, about 0.7–0.8%, because Pecorino Romano is salty. Add the pasta and cook until 2 minutes short of the package time.

23 min

Prepare the sauce base

Finely grate the Pecorino Romano. Toast the black pepper in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 1 minute. When fragrant, add 100ml pasta water and reduce the heat to low.

34 min

Emulsify with the pasta

Transfer the pasta to the frying pan 2 minutes early. Toss over medium heat, adding pasta water gradually, until the released starch begins to thicken the liquid, about 4 minutes.

42 min

Add the cheese off the heat

Turn off the heat. Add the grated Pecorino in three additions, tossing quickly and loosening with pasta water as needed. The sauce is ready when smooth and creamy. If it clumps, warm it over the lowest heat for only a few seconds and add a splash of pasta water.

51 min

Plate and finish

Serve as soon as the creamy sauce coats every strand. Finish with more freshly ground black pepper.

About this dish

Just three ingredients — pasta, Pecorino Romano, black pepper. Often called Rome’s oldest pasta, cacio e pepe distills real technique into apparent simplicity.

The simpler a dish is, the less room there is to hide a mistake. Whether the pecorino melts into a smooth, creamy sauce or seizes into clumps comes down to temperature and moisture: when you pull the pan off the heat, how much pasta water you hold back, how fast you add the cheese. Only when all three move together does that silky sauce appear.

Roman cooks call this emulsion technique mantecare — literally “to work in butter.” Cacio e pepe has to reach the same texture with no butter at all, which is exactly why it’s so unforgiving.

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