How to Cook Perfect Pasta 9.2.1.1 - How to Cook Cacio e Pepe - Part 1

When it comes to simple pasta dishes, you can't get any simpler than cacio e pepe - pronounced KAH-chio eh PEH-peh. It's only three ingredients: pasta, cheese (cacio), and pepper (pepe). Originating in Rome, the method is easy. You just mix hot pasta with grated pecorino cheese and black pepper. Like, that's it. But while this recipe is small on ingredients, it's big on flavor. It's also big on preparation, because in order to pull off this dish you need to move quickly. As you'll see from the demo video, the pasta comes together pretty quickly. The key is to have everything ready ahead of time. That means:
Cheese is ground to a powder
Cheese is at room temperature
You're prepared to reserve a bit of hot pasta water
You're ready to mix everything as soon as the pasta is done.
If you lag on any part of this dish, it won't work. You can seriously make this dish in less than 15 minutes, but everything needs to be ready. And while it may seem like there's a learning curve here, once you've made this dish once, you can almost make it in your sleep.
This dish calls for Pecorino - also known as Pecorino Romano - which comes in block or grated form. Make sure your cheese is both at room temp and ground to a powder, and you'll be golden.
Scroll down for your free cooking cheat sheets.
This cooking lesson is part of a video series. Other videos in the How to Cook Cacio e Pepe series:
Cacio e Pepe Intro: • How to Cook Perfect Pa...
Preparing Cacio e Pepe: • How to Cook Perfect Pa...
Cacio e Pepe Recipe Demo: • How to Cook Perfect Pa...
Combined Cacio e Pepe Full Version: • How to Cook Perfect Pa...
Download your free printable cheat sheets:
What else can you add to Cacio e Pepe? media1-product...
How to Cook Zoodles cheat sheet (AKA, veggie noodies): media1-product...
Cacio e pepe recipe, long recipe with more details instructions for beginners: media1-product...
Cacio e pepe recipe, short recipe for those with more cooking experience: media1-product...
Perfect Pasta Tutorial: media1-product...
Long Pasta Portion Measuring Cheat Sheet: media1-product...
Short Pasta Portion Measuring Cheat Sheet: media1-product...