This Cacio e Pepe Has a Secret for a Silky Smooth Sauce (2024)

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Lumps and clumps, begone!

Elizabeth Mervosh

Elizabeth Mervosh is a recipe tester and developer for the Dotdash Meredith Food Studios in Birmingham, Alabama and tests and develops recipes for brands including Southern Living, Real Simple, Food & Wine, and People.

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Updated on 02/13/24

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Breaking With Tradition (Just a Smidge)

Cacio e pepe is traditionally made from black pepper, aged Pecorino Romano cheese, spaghetti or tonnarelli pasta, and, most importantly, pasta cooking water. Authentic cacio e pepe does not include butter or oil, but we’re willing to break a few rules for flavor. Most recipes call for the one-pan method of marrying the pasta with the sauce in the same pan, but we’re going to take the lesser-known path to create the creamiest sauce.

How To Grate the Cheese for the Smoothest Sauce

Ideally, the cheese should be grated with a Microplane grater; this texture has the best-melting properties sans clumps. The second best option is grating the cheese in a food processor. Chop the Pecorino, add it to the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until couscous-sized pieces of cheese form. Grating cheese on a box grater's fine teeth is not recommended. It’s an annoying process, and the cheese is too fine for this method. It will clump immediately.

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Black Pepper is not an Afterthought

All too often, black pepper is haphazardly added to dishes, and I am totally guilty of doing this. But in cacio e pepe, black pepper is a major player and should be treated as such. Freshly ground pepper has way more flavor than pre-ground pepper. Please give it a go if you have a pepper mill. But if you only have the pre-ground stuff, no worries! Toasting the pepper in oil intensifies its taste, and the oil helps carry the flavor throughout the dish.

Heat is Your Frenemy

If I learned anything about cacio e pepe, it’s this: heat is your frenemy. Grated cheese tossed with ripping hot pasta equals a mess, but it needs to be warm enough to actually melt the cheese. Even when I gradually added cheese to pasta coated in a starchy pasta water emulsion, it still clumped. The bottom line: if proteins in the cheese are heated up too quickly, they clump.

To work around this issue, I treated the cheese like eggs in a custard. Adding small amounts of hot pasta water to the cheese gradually heats its proteins and melts most of the grated cheese. The cheese mixture is thoroughly diluted and tempered, just like a custard, before the pasta, which is cooled briefly, is added. Then it’s simply tossing the pasta with the cheese mixture until perfectly creamy. Simple as that.

Tips for Making Cacio e Pepe

Let the pasta cool slightly—Ripping hot pasta plus finely shredded or grated cheese inevitably yields a clumpy sauce. Letting the pasta cool for 2 minutes before tossing ensures a perfectly creamy sauce.
Develop a rich black pepper flavor—Toasting the pepper in oil and butter awakens its flavor. Your pepe will taste pepperier.
Temper the cheese for the smoothest sauce—Tempering the pecorino mixture with hot cooking water slowly warms up the proteins in the cheese, guaranteeing a smooth sauce.

Serving Cacio e Pepe

Because cacio e pepe is such a simple dish, we recommend maintaining that simplicity in the dishes you serve with it. In that spirit, all you really need is a simple side salad to make this a complete meal.

"It was quite a journey to get to a cacio e pepe with a perfectly smooth sauce, but we did it! The results are silky smooth and of course perfectly delicious." —The Spruce Eats Test Kitchen

This Cacio e Pepe Has a Secret for a Silky Smooth Sauce (4)

A Note From Our Recipe Tester

Ingredients

2 quarts water
1 1/2 teaspoons fine salt
1 (16-ounce) package spaghetti
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons freshly ground coarse black pepper
4 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, grated with a Microplane grater (about 2 1/2 cups), plus more for serving

Steps to Make It

Gather the ingredients.
Bring 2 quarts water and 1 1/2 teaspoons fine salt to a boil in a large Dutch oven (or another pot wide enough to fit spaghetti) over high. Add 1 (16-ounce) package spaghetti to the boiling water and cook according to package directions for al dente.
While the pasta water comes to a boil, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, and 2 teaspoons freshly ground coarse black pepper in a medium skillet over medium. Cook, stirring constantly, until the butter is melted and the pepper is sizzling, 2 to 3 minutes.
Transfer the pepper mixture to a large bowl and stir in 4 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, grated with a Microplane grater (about 2 1/2 cups) until the cheese is completely coated.
Drain the pasta in a colander, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. Let the pasta sit for 2 minutes.
While the pasta cools, whisk 3/4 cup of the reserved cooking water into the pecorino mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, until most of the cheese is melted.
Transfer the pasta to the pecorino mixture. Working quickly, vigorously stir the pasta mixture until a creamy sauce forms and coats the pasta, 20 to 30 seconds. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup reserved cooking water to loosen if necessary.
Divide among 4 bowls and serve immediately, topped with additional Pecorino Romano as desired.

Feeling Adventurous? Try This:

Try other types of pepper for a different flavor—You can substitute crushed black pepper with crushed pink peppercorns, Sichuan peppercorns, or Tellicherry peppercorns.
Mix cheeses—Replace half of the Pecorino Romano with parmesan cheese, Asiago, Manchego, or Grana Padano.
Use a different pasta—Italians will disagree, but most long pasta shapes are totally ok to use, like Bucatini, mafaldine, or fettuccine. Just keep it a secret.

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Nutrition Facts (per serving)
674	Calories
25g	Fat
87g	Carbs
24g	Protein

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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories	674
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 25g	32%
Saturated Fat 10g	51%
Cholesterol 45mg	15%
Sodium 679mg	30%
Total Carbohydrate 87g	31%
Dietary Fiber 4g	14%
Total Sugars 3g
Protein 24g
Vitamin C 0mg	0%
Calcium 333mg	26%
Iron 4mg	23%
Potassium 296mg	6%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Recipe Tags:

cacio e pepe
black pepper
pasta
pecorino

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This Cacio e Pepe Has a Secret for a Silky Smooth Sauce (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret of cacio e pepe? ›

The Best Cacio e Pepe Recipe tips for success. Salt water. Salting the pasta water infuses the pasta and the water with flavor which translates to more flavorful Cacio e Pepe. Stir pasta frequently while it cooks.

Why is my cacio e pepe sauce not creamy? ›

Tips for Making Cacio e Pepe

Let the pasta cool slightly—Ripping hot pasta plus finely shredded or grated cheese inevitably yields a clumpy sauce. Letting the pasta cool for 2 minutes before tossing ensures a perfectly creamy sauce.

What is special about cacio e pepe? ›

But what makes cacio e pepe so special, you might ask? It's all in the technique. The key to a perfect cacio e pepe is getting the right consistency for the sauce. It should be creamy and smooth, but not too thick - the cheese and pepper should coat the pasta, but not clump together.

Discover More Details ›

Why is my cacio e pepe stringy? ›

That said, as simple as the cacio e pepe ingredient list may be, this dish is famously finicky when it comes to technique. If the cheese is overheated or the starchy pasta water isn't emulsified properly, the sauce can turn into a sticky, clumpy mess, which I can vouch from experience is always such a tragedy.

Know More ›

What is cacio e pepe sauce made of? ›

Traditionally, cacio e pepe (pronounced: kaa-chee-ow ee peh-pay) is made with just three ingredients: aged pecorino Romano cheese, freshly ground black pepper, and pasta, usually spaghetti; plus the starchy water from cooking the noodles. You don't have to go to Rome to enjoy cacio e pepe.

Find Out More ›

How do you fix the clumpy cheese in cacio e pepe? ›

These cheeses can also clump when they're not grated finely enough, so grate your pecorino using the smallest holes on your box grater or the finest blade on your food processor. As you sprinkle the cheese into the pot, stir the pasta constantly.

See Details ›

Why is cacio e pepe so difficult? ›

What Makes Cacio e Pepe So Difficult? Cacio e pepe should have a very smooth, creamy sauce that coats the pasta in velvety goodness. This can be tricky to achieve, and many cooks find that the pecorino cheese clumps together in gooey, sticky gobs and leaves the pasta in a wet, peppery mess.

Keep Reading ›

Can I use parmesan instead of pecorino for cacio e pepe? ›

Opt for Parmesan: You can use Parmesan instead of Pecorino Romano, or even combine the two for a unique cheese profile. However, Parmesan isn't as salty or tangy as Pecorino Romano, so you may need to add more to get the sharpness that cacio e pepe is known for.

Where did Anthony Bourdain have cacio e pepe? ›

The specific cacio e pepe that Bourdain loves best comes from Ristorante Roma Sparita in Rome, where the smooth, buttery, cheesy pasta is served in a bowl made of Parmesan. It looks amazing. While gushing over the pasta, Bourdain said he'd give up his first sexual experience to eat it again.

Know More ›

What pasta shape is best for cacio e pepe? ›

Spaghetti: Cacio e Pepe is traditionally made with some kind of long pasta (noodle); I like to use spaghetti but I've also seen it with bucatini, linguine, fettuccine, and even tagliatelle. You can use either dry or fresh pasta.

What pairs best with cacio e pepe? ›

Look no further than Chianti Classico for a classic red pairing. While most people associate this wine with flavorful meats like Florentine steak, the sharpness of the cacio e pepe holds its own and makes Chianti an unexpected accompaniment.

Read On ›

Why is cacio e pepe so hard to perfectly execute? ›

But it is extremely hard to execute well because you need to control the heat. The cheese will become stringy if you heat up your pan too much (above 70 °C or 158 °F). I tested all the methods, so you do not need to! Cacio e Pepe is rare in restaurants because it is hard to serve warm without the corn starch trick.

Get More Info ›

How to get cacio e pepe right? ›

One of the secrets (there are many!) to a classic 3-ingredient cacio e pepe is starch. Getting a good amount of starch from the pasta water and pasta itself, via a process called risottare, is key to a creamy final sauce. It helps the sauce to not clump, and achieve that beautiful silky texture.

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Why does cacio e pepe split? ›

One factor in getting the cheese to emulsify properly which is usually where cacio e pepe fails is the amount of starch in the water.

Can I use Parmesan instead of pecorino for cacio e pepe? ›

Learn More ›