Cacio e Pepe Sauce
This Cacio e Pepe Sauce is everything a good pasta night should be: fast, cheesy, and made with ingredients you probably already have on hand. Just spaghetti, pecorino, black pepper, and a little starchy pasta water. It comes together in the time it takes your noodles to boil, and it's silkier and glossier than you'd expect from four pantry staples.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 14 oz spaghetti
- sea salt to taste
- 6 oz pecorino cheese
- 2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of well salted water as per the package instructions. I usually start checking for doneness around the 12 minute mark. While the noodles are cooking continue on with step 2.
- Meanwhile, grate the pecorino as fine as you can on the smallest bowl of the box grater. If you have a hand held microplane for grating garlic or zesting citrus, use that as it will yield an even smoother sauce.
- In a large, non-reactive bowl, combine the grated cheese and the pepper along with 2-3 tbsp of the water from the cooking pan of pasta to make a smooth, thick paste. Use a dessert spoon to spread the mixture in an even coating up the sides of the bowl.
- Drain the pasta, reserving a cup of the cooking water, and leave it to stand for 1 minute before adding it to the bowl.
- Using a pair of tongs, gradually swirl the spaghetti in the cheese-lined bowl, adding drizzles of cooking water so the cheese starts to coat the pasta in a glossy sauce.
- Serve immediately in warm bowls.
Notes
- Use the freshest cheese you can to make the cacao e pepe sauce; if older cheese is a little dry it won’t entirely emulsify and will result in a slightly lumpy, but still delicious sauce.
- Pecorino is the traditional choice for cacao e pepe and is easier to emulsify, but you can still achieve excellent results using parmesan instead, but don’t use pre-grated cheese as it often contains ingredients designed to make it not stick together in the bag that will get in the way of emulsification.
- Don’t expect to master the smoothest, silkiest sauce the first time, it takes practice! But, if after 3 or 4 goes you’re still not getting it a small splash of heavy cream will help everything come together.
- It is easier to emulsify the sauce with spaghetti, but once you’ve got the hang of it penne also works well.
Nutrition
Calories: 533kcal | Carbohydrates: 76g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 44mg | Sodium: 516mg | Potassium: 258mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 176IU | Calcium: 473mg | Iron: 2mg
