Stop Overthinking CACIO E PEPE | A Foolproof and Totally Traditional Recipe

Cacio e pepe (literally “cheese and pepper”) is one of the simplest pasta dishes out there, yet one of the trickiest to master. Many cooks struggle to create a creamy sauce without thick clumps of stringy cheese, and much of the culinary internet space has devoted itself to finding “foolproof” methods for preparing it.

Many of these methods technically work, but they also tend to radically change the nature of the dish and/or overcomplicate this humble pasta. In this video, we hope to clear up some confusion and present a technique that is both foolproof, traditional and incredibly yummy at the same time.

It’s time to end the Cacio e Pepe madness!

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FOOLPROOF & TRADITIONAL CACIO E PEPE RECIPE – https://www.pastagrammar.com/post/how-to-make-cacio-e-pepe-authentic-italian-recipe

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00:00 – What is Cacio e Pepe?
01:09 – The “Problem” with Cacio e Pepe
01:57 – What Makes Italian Cacio e Pepe Different?
04:22 – The Right Pasta for Cacio e Pepe
05:37 – What Everyone Gets Wrong About Cacio e Pepe
09:12 – Eva’s Foolproof Cacio e Pepe Method
09:54 – The Best Cheese for Cacio e Pepe
10:55 – How to Grate Cheese for Cacio e Pepe
11:48 – Toasting Pepper for Cacio e Pepe
13:07 – Which Pasta to Use for Cacio e Pepe
13:36 – How to Cook the Pepper Sauce for Cacio e Pepe
15:16 – Cacio e Pepe Trick: Let the Pasta Cool Down!
16:02 – How to Add Cheese Without Clumping
18:46 – Harper Makes Cacio e Pepe
21:56 – Eva Tries Harper’s First Cacio e Pepe
23:27 – Let’s Put the Cacio e Pepe Obsession to Bed
24:03 – Pasta Grammarian in Action!

#cacioepepe #recipe #foolproof

this super simple Italian pasta dish has
made the entire culinary world go crazy
let’s talk about it so we’re talking
about a dish called kacho a Pepe today
and if you are I would say somewhat
familiar with Italian food you’ve almost
certainly encountered this dish it is
really popular becoming more popular as
the name of the dish tells by itself kaj
is a a dish made with Cacho which means
cheese and peer which means black pepper
nothing else nothing more I would say
that is more famous outside of Italy
that in Italy yes we eat K if you go to
Rome where Kaja is from you can find
everywhere but let’s be honest we
Italians we treat Kaja as we treat alono
which means when the fridge is empty and
we don’t have any other
Choice it’s just a quick simple dish
that you can whip up in no time and it’s
important to understand that context I
think so what’s the problem with kach
Pepe uh people try to make it and they
have some trouble with it basically the
biggest problem people have uh maybe the
only problem people have I guess is that
the cheese sauce tends to break Clump
being like aadel yeah the cheese kind of
clumps and gets all stringy and what you
really want with a kacho Pepe is a very
smooth creamy cheese sauce There are an
insane amount of Articles videos all
these sources online giving their
opinions on what the problem is and how
to solve it there are like a million
videos like the foolproof way to make
kacho a Pepe and we’re going to get to
some of those in a minute but before we
address that there are some important
variables that can be different between
the Italian kacho Pepe and the kacho
Pepe that maybe you or I can make and we
should probably explain those the first
problem let’s go like that is the cheese
in Italy you are pretty sure to have a
very good cheese and for cheese in this
case I mean a peino cheese whether you
use Pino Romano Pino sardo calab Toscano
a ship cheese you know 100% 100% sure
that it’s a very good cheese and melts
in the proper way sometimes outside of
Italy and for sure here you go and buy a
cheese that says peino but you don’t
really know what they put inside so you
end up having like this clumpsy it’s a
word clumpy I like clumpsy though I like
more sounds like clumsy clumpsy it’s a
clumpsy cheese sauce that is not really
really
appetizing appetizing good delicious
well yeah we’ve noticed because okay for
instance paragano reano the other kind
of main hard cheese in Italy that’s
super famous that is now at a point
where for instance in America you can
find it very easily and because it says
paragano reano you know that that is the
real deal made the right way otherwise
it can’t say paragano reano whereas
pecorino is just a catchall term for any
sheep cheese but that name by itself
doesn’t mean mean very much and if you
look closely at the ingredients
sometimes you’ll often see things like
stabilizers and they call them like
anti-caking
agents and like artificial things that
I’m sure are meant to make it more shelf
stable we don’t know for sure but that
could be contributing to the problem
that people outside of Italy seem to
have with a dish that for most Italians
is just a really simple thing that they
don’t even understand why we we make
such a big deal about it being difficult
there’s another important variable
though that no one seems to talk about
the other problem that is a problem but
it’s also maybe it isn’t a problem is
the kind of pasta that we use in Italy
if you go as a such R where kaj is from
you end up having a place bit of fresh
pasta usually the pasta that they use
are tarelli it is a thicker egg pasta in
the shape of spaghetti more or less
sometimes they are squared sometimes
they are round but that is a category a
thicker spaghetto but made fresh and the
fresh pasta really much more s when you
cook so it helps to make it much more
creamier with thought about trying to
share how to make tonarelli at home um
but it is difficult and you basically
need a machine and for instance if you
buy like a normal pasta rolling machine
like a Marcato Atlas they will
undoubtedly come with this kind of
roller this here is for making like a
kind of square spaghetti shape but it’s
too thin so you can’t really make
tonarelli with it machines that can make
tonarelli are pretty uncom
so rather than bothering with that we’re
going to focus on what most people use
for K Pepe which is spaghetti I have
been diving deep into the YouTube sphere
looking at all different kinds of
people’s solutions for kacho Pepe so I
thought it would be fun to run some of
these by you AA okay so here we have
everyone’s favorite internet chef babish
and he has his perfect foolproof kacho
Pepe now the first thing thing you are
going to notice is the uh prolific use
of butter ker it’s called ker because is
a cheese and pepper is one of the few
pasta dishes that actually hasn’t any
fat like butter or olive oil or L is
like just the cheese and pepper Che and
then what he does to make a sauce that
doesn’t break is he basically makes the
sauce in a blender before being as I
said before one of the most easiest
pasta dish that you can find in ity and
we do when we don’t have anything else
this should make you also understand
that is made by the poor students for
example and believe me the students in
Italy we don’t own like a machine a
blender or something like that it kind
of defeats the purpose of this simple
quick pasta sauce if to make it you need
to start pulling out the blender and
everything I mean if it works that’s
fine but it’s also you don’t need it
kind of defeats the purpose so this is
another one uh Brian lagerstrom
lagerstrom sorry if I’m pronouncing that
wrong good guy but uh his solution yeah
his solution is xantham gum now except
for a few I don’t know in the Deep
chemical stuff in Italy people who study
chemical and something like that we
don’t know what santum gum is we don’t
see yes we have but we don’t use santam
G at to make make CCH papy is are you
crazy oh and yeah and you also need an
immersion blender here we’re making an
experiment here not a pasta addition
experiment again it’s like it’s possible
that that works and that’s like okay but
again it really defeats the purpose if
you need to go buy xantham gum to make
your but also that if you present a
pasta caj between Italians and said yeah
look I used the santum G there a you
with this oh he also uses olive oil no
he’s not using olive oil he frying the
pepper in the olive oil yeah he uses
olive oil and presents it as the
traditional version too which sorry
Brian that’s not the case I’m sure you
got a lot of crap about that already
this chart right here is why the
traditional version is so hard to
execute realistically we need to say 10
to 15° away from the melting this is
another one uh another YouTuber we like
Ethan kabowski he Dives really deep into
like the science of food and stuff and
that’s great but like looking at these
like charts of temperatures and
everything are just like again really
over complicating a dish that is not
that complicated see we don’t have to
forget that it’s just a simple pasta
dish like don’t make it more complicator
than it is it’s a simple pasta dish
similarly though to like the xantham gum
he uses is corn starch to to try and
make the sauce can you imagine if you go
in a restaurant in Italy and they say k
ingredients corn starch or samam gum who
will e something like that so after
going down that Rabbit Hole uh I said to
Ava can you develop a
foolproof kacho Pepe method that works
with a not so great peino if that’s all
you have available to you with normal
store-bought spaghetti not some egg
fresh pasta that’s hard to make and hard
to find and keep it super traditional so
not adding butter and olive oil and
xantham gum and all this stuff and uh it
took her well the it took her the time
to to boil the pasta so I guess should
we just show them your full prooof
method the cheese that we need to make
AAP is Pino Romano but today I’m not
going to use a a fancy peino that I
brought back from Italy I’m going to use
a normal Pino that I bought at Costco so
is pretty available for each one of us
who lives in the United States using
this cheese as a problem and the problem
is that this is a piece of salt it
hasn’t really the peino taste that we
are used in Italy in order to avoid this
salty taste what I’m going to do today
is using Al peino from CCO and half
parano if you use a mix like that you
will have a deeper round result round
flavor while if you just use this
pegorino and he will be pretty salty the
first trick that you can use to solve
your your problem with katup paper is
grating the cheese that you’re going to
use in a very fine way so I warmly
suggest a grater like that because it
will grate your cheese and makes it look
like a cloud making kacha Peppe I
discovered that my perfect amount of
cheese is 25 G per person but then when
we talk about cheese it’s also real that
everyone has his own taste so feel free
to adjust the quantity as you
[Music]
like I like to use for kaj
peer pepper corns
because let’s be honest they taste much
better than the already already already
graded one and what I’m going to do is
toast them in a pan when you toast a
spice in general you need a very high
heat and I’m going to toast this pepper
corn for about 4 minutes but you can
actually really smell the flavor and
when you start to smell the flavor you
understand that is the moment in which
you can turn off theat
after the peppercorn is toasted is the
moment in which we can MH it we can gr
it and the best way to do it’s obvious a
mortar and mortar and pzle
[Applause]
mor so now we can place it back in the
pan
[Music]
if you’re using dry pasta is there any
pasta other than spaghetti that you
would use for a kacho Pepe spaghetti is
like a stable then because I’m a big fan
of penish I would use penish no matter
what also ratoni can be a choice maybe
butini also butini can be a
choice after we put the past under water
what we need to do is turn on the heat
on the black
pepper and add some pasta
[Music]
water the real secret of c p is pasta
water it’s not the cheese it’s not the
pasta it’s not the pepper it’s the pasta
water what we need to do at this stage
is just
keep our pepper simmering in the pasta
water while the pasta is cooking I will
add a little bit of pasta water when I
need but really this is the only things
that we need to do
now I’m going to cook the pasta very
very alent which means that I will take
it out of the pan the pot at least 3
minutes before on the time that is
written on the package when the pasta is
ready turn off the heat because we need
the pasta water but we don’t want a
boiling pasta water and then we transfer
the pasta into the sauce with the pasta
water and the pepper we keep cooking the
pasta in the pan on on a very high heat
and we add a little bit of the time some
pasta water because what we need now is
keeping cooking the pasta but create
also a moisture with the starch that the
pasta is releasing in this moment once
the pasta is allent we turn off the heat
and we let the pasta stays in the pan
for 3 minutes don’t worry it doesn’t get
all see hot it doesn’t get cold don’t
worry it feels so weird and wrong to let
pasta sit like that do you want a good
ketchup paper yes this is what you need
to do what makes the cheese clumps when
it happens is the heat of the pasta so
what you need to do is just reduce the
temperature it reached the point in
which the cheese just melt but doesn’t
make clumps I hope that it makes sense a
few minutes later now the 3 minutes are
gone so I’m start to add the cheese I’m
adding the cheese a little bit at the
time and it’s very important to add also
some pasta water and keep stirring it
because in this way the cheese will melt
properly and every time that I add a
little bit of cheese I will add some
drops of water again it’s just a little
bit of cheese a little bit the pasta
water and keep stirring
[Music]
it and that is how you make ketchup
paper okay even though you have to let
the pasta sit in the pan in order to
make it this way when it’s in the dish
when it’s on the dish we shouldn’t wait
so before we talk about it let’s take a
bite oh it smells
amazing want a
PO that came out perfect perfect like
out perfect dang sorry I need another
bite it’s so funny because for you this
is just such a casual normal plate of
pasta but I understand why everyone is
obsessed with making it because when
you’re not used to it it’s amazing at
how simple a dish can be so good I I
agree it’s like this Simplicity is a
very good plate of pasta if it’s well
done I mean from a texture point of view
it’s perfect no clumps your method here
with just letting it chill for just a
minute or two worked so well it was even
simpler than what you used to do which
is mixing the cheese and the pasta water
before it’s like you don’t even need to
get that complicated you can just add
the cheese directly in and as long as
you’re careful about the temperature it
works brilliantly also I can definitely
say because I’ve had it both ways when
you’re not using really amazing peino
doing a mix helps a lot that is so much
yummier than straight peino if you’re
using Costco peino Costco peino yeah yes
if you in Italy and you have access of
very good good and flavored peino that
is not just salt use just that but when
you are outside of Italy where it’s like
find the I’m not TR sure if you find 100
gr of peino and you have access to
Costco one or the others make a mix now
here’s the thing AA you have presented
this as a foolproof method for making
kacho Pepe but when it comes to cooking
you’re no fool I think a fool should
take a shot at it let’s see what you
learn okay I have my pepper
here in the
pan nice high heat I’m a little bit
nervous I’ve never made a kacho Pepe
before for okay yeah I can smell that so
I’m going to turn off the heat the
pepper into my mortar and
pestle what do you think I think that’s
pretty good all right now back into the
pan but let’s see how our water is doing
oh we are boiling going to Salt
it and add the spaghetti
[Music]
so far so good but we haven’t really got
into the Heart part yet I am definitely
not as good as AA at being able to tell
exactly how far away the past is from
being done but I also know that I can
always keep cooking it longer in the pan
so I’m going to turn off the pasta water
heat transfer it into the pan now turn
up the heat here add some more pasta
water and keep cooking
[Music]
it okay that’s looking pretty good to me
I’m going to turn off the heat and hey
s set a timer for 3
minutes 3 minutes starting now a few
minutes later show time the moment of
truth I’m going add
a little bit of cheese and a little bit
of pasta
water start
[Music]
stirring okay looking good so far little
bit
more water
[Music]
it’s looking good
AA yeah gradually adding the cheese
really seems to
[Music]
work I look it looks pretty good AA okay
now we’ve come to the truly difficult
part which is plating spaghetti like
[Music]
Ava and now oh I need a
spoon I made Cacho Pepe no you made a
very good looking kacha Pepe yes it
looks pretty good for my first kacha
Pepe but you got to try it to uh see how
it
[Music]
tastes I don’t know if I’m more proud of
myself to teach you or I’m more proud of
you that learn so fast
mama so it’s
foolproof see for sure it’s Harper
proof Harper I’m not joking it’s like
it’s amazing so having cooked it myself
now I can say that you know the the key
takeaways seem to be letting the pasta
cool down because as our friend Ethan
kabowski says it’s all about temperature
but you don’t need to measure the
temperature just let it cool down for a
little bit add the cheese a little bit
at a time
a little bit of pasta when you add it
all at once that it starts to Clump up
just add it a little bit gradually and
also just to make all of these much more
yummy do a mix of peino and paragano
because chances are almost certain that
you can’t get a really good peino this
will make it taste much much better well
guys we sincerely hope that this is the
only kacho Pepe video you will ever need
I think it’s time for this madness to
end it’s a good play to pass to go make
it but definitely it’s doesn’t need to
be over complicated here as we say in
Italy don’t don’t waste your dream to
find a way in which you can make a very
good CA Pap just turn off the eat it’s
done also let’s be honest if you if you
continue to have problems with kacho
Pepe there are so many better pasta
dishes out there it’s like this is the
obsession with this dish is a little bit
insane too much too much I think fetuin
Al Alfredo the real one is a better dish
personally I like them more than k a
paper personally speaking of which uh
here is an amazing pasta that pasta
Garian Brandon made he made well it
depends on where you are what you call
it but Fila f macarona Inda it’s my
favorite pasta shape and he also made
pasta with indua which is my favorite
pasta sauce so well done Brandon it
looks amazing that is not an easy pasta
shape to make making macarona is way
harder than making kach Pepe so well
done if you want to become a pastor
Garian just hit that subscribe button
follow us on social media and definitely
tag us in a picture there if you try any
of the recipes all right guys we’ll see
you next time so you know what
this is the best
one let’s be honest that in the plate
was 10 out of 10 and this is 11 out of
11 these car to 11
I’m mom