How to Make Cacio e Pepe, Step by Step

It's one of the most elemental and elegant recipes you can make, and it's also one of the simplest. Yes, we're talking about the classic Italian pasta dish that is cacio e pepe. While the typical recipe is cheese and pepper on pasta, ours has a few additions, namely butter, lemon, and olive oil. Here we're sharing our test kitchen's step by step method for making cacio e pepe tonight or any night a craving strikes.

While some classic Italian pasta dishes can be made with a variety of noodles (Bolognese doesn't have to be paired with spaghetti, nor does carbonara), cacio e pepe should be made with either spaghetti or bucatini. This simple dish needs long, thin round noodles to coat.

The cheese is where our recipe first deviates from the traditional. Cacio e pepe is said to have originated in Roman times when shepherds took their pasta with them when they moved their sheep to pasture in the spring. They cooked the pasta during the spring and summer months with the cheese they made from their sheep's milk, which would have been a cheese similar to Pecorino Romano. Today, some cooks prefer to simply toss hot pasta with Pecorino Romano in this age-old way, but our recipe uses more than just Pecorino. We also add Grana Padano. The Pecorino is used to finish the pasta while the Grana Padano is used for a creamy, silky pan sauce, and that's because it's a cheese that melts beautifully.

We also up the ante by adding the brightness of lemon as a finishing touch. The other essential ingredient is plenty of freshly ground black pepper, which is where the pepe portion of the name comes from!

Because cacio e pepe is so simple, technique is important. Follow our step-by-step guide to master the recipe at home.

Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Add the pasta, and cook until very al dente, about two minutes less than called for on the package instructions. Reserve one cup of pasta water before draining.

Transfer pasta to a 12-inch skillet (preferably nonstick). Add butter and 1/2 cup pasta water. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. The heat helps the starch in the water meld with the fat from the butter, which prevents the Grana Padano from becoming stringy in the finished dish.

Reduce heat to low, and mix in the Grana Padano and cracked pepper. Grana Padano is softer than Pecorino Romano; it will melt into the buttery water, creating a sauce as the pasta finishes cooking.

Toss the pasta to thoroughly coat it with sauce—use tongs to do this. As for the technique, it's all in the wrist. Keep everything at a gentle simmer just until the cheese melts and the sauce thickens slightly, about a minute.

Remove the pan from the heat, then stir in the Pecorino Romano. (Always add Pecorino off direct heat; it clumps when cooked.) Zest the lemon over the pasta. Any type of lemon will work, but a Meyer lemon is particularly nice in this dish: It has a sweeter flavor and aroma, with back notes of orange and lime.