Across the Tiber river in the rustic neighborhood of Trastavere, you’ll find the best eateries Rome has to offer. Once a quiet neighborhood where the Romans went to eat the best fried artichokes, bowls and bowls of Cacio e Pepe, now with the secret out you’ll see hungry tourists looking for the best food in Rome. Old timeless buildings, cobblestone streets lined with checkered tablecloth covered tables, Trastervere is one of the best place to get authentic Cacio e Pepe + the best food Rome has to offer.
What is cacio e pepe?
Cacio e pepe is a classic Roman pasta dish that translates to ‘cheese and pepper’. At it’s basic level it’s made with 4-ingredients: pasta, black pepper, freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese and olive oil/butter. For the pasta; choose long pasta like Spaghetti or spaghetti chitarra, tonnarelli, linguine, bucatini or any long pasta. What to look for is the balance of chewy noodles, perfect amount of luscious creamy cheese sauce, punctuated with a heady amount of coarse cracked pepper.
If you want something more than the basic Cacio e Pepe, which by the way is amazing in itself, but I like adding a little garlic, lemon for extra flavor. I also find arugula with its peppery flavor, compliments the cheese sauce so beautifully. But these are Add Ons. If the garlic is too much for you, simply warm the garlic slices in the oil or butter for a 1 or 2 minutes and fish them out. This will give enough subtle garlic flavor without overpowering.
How to make delicious Cacio e Pepe
Pasta: Traditionally spaghetti, spaghetti chitarra, tonnarelli are the most commonly used pasta to make this recipe, very often bucatini or linguine are subbed and work just as well. I recommend using pasta that says bronze cut, this kind of pasta has a rough surface and lighter in color, they release more starch into the water and the sauce has a better chance to adhere to its surface. We will be using the pasta water to make the sauce.
Black pepper: Use a good quality whole black peppercorn for this recipe. Tellicherry from India is my favorite and works the best for this recipe. With 4-ingredients, salt being one of them you want top notch quality ingredients. Dry roast whole peppercorns to activate their natural oils, then pound/coarse grind them with a few into fine grinds.
Grated cheese: Pecorino Romano cheese is traditionally used, alternatively Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano is often subbed and melts beautifully to create a luscious sauce. Plus it’s easily available. And please do not use previously grated cheese. Pre-grated cheese comes coated with anti-clump agents, leaving a gritty taste and will not melt nicely into the pasta. It is worth the effort to grate the cheese yourself with a cheese grater.
Water: Less water is used to boil the pasta, this helps make more starchy water and a creamier sauce. Using less water makes more concentrated starchy water per cup of water resulting in a silky smooth textured sauce.
Cacio è Pepe with Garlic Lemon and Arugula
Ingredients
- 12 oz bucatini or spaghetti
- 1 cup heaped Pecorino Romano or Parmesan freshly grated plus more for topping
- 1 tbsp freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 2-3 tbsp e.v olive oil or butter
- 2 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- handful of fresh arugula
- 1 medium lemon,1 tsp zested + 2 tablespoons juiced
Instructions
- Fill a large pot or Dutch oven with 4 quarts of water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the salt. Add the pasta. Cook until almost tender (Taste a piece of pasta – the texture should be slightly firm, normally a minute less than the package instruction). Reserve 2 cups of the pasta water and drain the pasta.
- Heat a large pan to medium heat. Add the olive oil or butter and swirl the pan. Add the sliced garlic and cook for 30 sec-1 minute on very low heat without browning. (If you prefer you can remove the garlic, the oil is well flavored) Stir in the pepper. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
- Keeping the heat down on low. Carefully add 1½ cups of the pasta water and bring to a simmer. Add the drained pasta and toss with tongs to coat with garlicky oil or butter. Sprinkle in 3/4 of the cheese, lemon juice and lemon zest.
- Toss until well combined and the cheese melts into the sauce. Remove from the heat. If the pasta becomes dry, add more reserved pasta water.
- Serve immediately topped with arugula, additional cheese and pepper, as desired.
Leave a Reply