Sauces · Italian cuisine
Cacio e pepe
Nothing but pecorino, black pepper and pasta water – a Roman sauce that lives or dies by its emulsion.
At a glance
- Origin
- Rome and Lazio, a cuisine of sheep’s cheeses.
- Production
- An emulsion of grated pecorino, pepper and starchy pasta water.
- Ratio
- About 100 g grated Pecorino Romano PDO per 400 g spaghetti.
- Pairs with
- Originally spaghetti, today also tonnarelli or rigatoni.
- Use
- Add guanciale and it becomes gricia.
Cacio e pepe is a Roman sauce of three things: grated Pecorino Romano, black pepper and the hot, starchy water the pasta cooked in. Rome’s tourist board credits the dish’s fame to the sheep’s-milk cheeses made throughout Lazio.
The principle is an emulsion: cheese and pepper in a bowl are loosened with a little boiling pasta water, the pasta goes in al dente, and everything is tossed quickly until the cheese melts into a smooth cream. Only a little water is needed, more if required, and it is served at once.
It is the most austere of the Roman family: gricia adds guanciale, carbonara guanciale and egg.