Bucatini Cacio e Pepe Recipe (2024)

FAQs

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.

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.

The secret, in addition to the chemical combination of water and Pecorino proteins to obtain a cream without lumps, lies in the flavor: whole peppercorns crushed the same day and plunged into the pan to toast releasing all their pungent aroma; the pasta whisked slowly and in a controlled way to absorb all the taste of ...

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.

Pasta: Thick spaghetti, bucatini, or tonnarelli are the three pasta shapes most often traditionally used when making cacio e pepe, but this recipe will work with just about any pasta shape you happen to have on hand.

Unfortunately for the restaurant's quiet charm, it didn't take long for people to find out that it was Ristorante Roma Sparita on Rome's Piazza di Santa Cecila. (The episode was shot in black and white in a nod to '60s Italian cinema.)

Add pepper and cook ('bloom'), until fragrant and toasted. Use tongs to pull pasta into the pan (this way you are reserving all the pasta water), then add ½ cup pasta water. Using a wooden spoon, stir the pasta, using the pasta as a whisk to emulsify the butter and pasta water into a sauce.

In Rome, Tucci eats cacio e pepe, one of the city's four famous kinds of pasta and one of our favorite dishes from the show. Made for Tucci by Japanese chef Kotaro Noda at Bistro64, cacio e pepe literally translates to “cheese and pepper."

Cheese– Aged Pecorino Romano is a MUST when making Cacio e Pepe. It is made from sheep's milk and has a strong and tangy flavor. I also use Parmesan cheese because I like the flavor of the two cheeses together. If you want to use ALL Pecorino Romano, you can, but personally I like the mix of both cheeses.

What are the ingredients in Trader Joe's Cacio e Pepe? ›

Ingredients. WATER, DURUM WHEAT SEMOLINA, PECORINO ROMANO CHEESE (SHIP'S MILK, SALT, ANIMAL RENNET, CHEESE CULTURES), MILK, WHEAT FLOUR, CREAM, BUTTER (MILK, NATURAL FLAVOR), GROUND BLACK PEPPER, SALT. Find out how your wellness data and product content can elevate the customer experience and convert more shoppers!

Pecorino Romano is a hard, Italian sheep's milk cheese. It has sharp, rich nutty flavor, making it the perfect cheese for this simple pasta dish. If you don't have it or can't find it Parmigiano-Reggiano is a totally acceptable alternative.

The trick is to toss the cheese with starch before heating it. As the starch heats up and gels, it stabilizes the cheese so it won't break. I tried the method for this Cacio e Pepe, which makes for a durable sauce that doesn't break even after raising the temperature until the sauce boils (usually a mortal sin).

Traditionally, Cacio e Pepe depended on the starch in the pasta water to act as the emulsifier and thickener of the pasta sauce. While the cornstarch gel supplants the need for starchy pasta water, using starchy pasta water certainly helps.

The best side dishes to serve with Cacio e Pepe are turkey meatballs, Caprese salad, shrimp scampi, grilled red snapper, grilled mushrooms, avocado salad, cornbread, Parmesan crusted walleye, chicken wings, beef tenderloin, garlic bread, bruschetta, sauteed spinach, Italian sausage, and roasted vegetables.

Cacio e Pepe is an authentic Italian recipe, while alfredo sauce is an Italian-American recipe. The sauce for Cacio e Pepe is thickened mainly with the starch from pasta cooking water, whereas alfredo sauce is made with milk or cream, butter, and flour to create a significantly thicker roux.

Cacio e pepe is made by emulsifying pasta water with grated cheese and black pepper. It clumps so easily. Alfredo has an image problem. Americans think of it as pasta draped in a cream sauce made of heavy cream and cheese, but the original version is thinner and creamy from an emulsion of butter and grated cheese.

The translation of Cacio e Pepe literally means cheese and pepper. This pasta dish is incredibly simple, but packs a lot of rich flavor with pecorino Romano cheese and freshly ground pepper. It has a very rich and strong flavor due to the Pecorino Romano sharp cheese as well as the heavy amount of pepper.

Pecorino Romano is a hard, Italian sheep's milk cheese. It has sharp, rich nutty flavor, making it the perfect cheese for this simple pasta dish. If you don't have it or can't find it Parmigiano-Reggiano is a totally acceptable alternative.