Cacio e Pepe (Pecorino and Black Pepper, the Never-Clumps Method)
Spaghetti in a smooth, sharp sauce of nothing but Pecorino Romano, toasted black pepper and pasta water, held together by a teaspoon of cooked cornstarch so it cannot seize into clumps.
Cacio e pepe means "cheese and pepper," and in Rome cacio means Pecorino Romano. Wikipedia repeats the common story that shepherds in Lazio, Abruzzo, Tuscany and Umbria made it in the 18th or 19th century, and adds that black pepper was probably added much later, since it was expensive. Katie Parla, writing for Serious Eats, quotes the Roman chef Claudio Gargioli of Armando al Pantheon pointing to Goethe's Italian Journey and its pasta dressed with cheese, and says that by the 1960s cacio e pepe was so popular Romans ate it at the end of a long, wine-fueled dinner, after dessert.
The trouble with cacio e pepe is the sauce: aged pecorino hates to melt and seizes into stringy clumps. In 2025, Wikipedia records, researchers who studied how temperature and starch control the sauce won the Ig Nobel Prize in physics. Serious Eats' Daniel Gritzer read their paper, "Phase Behavior of Cacio and Pepe Sauce," and built this recipe on its idea: a small, cooked cornstarch gel that keeps the cheese smooth without adding cream or butter, so it still tastes of pecorino and pepper and nothing else.
📖 Myth check: Should Pasta Water Be as Salty as the Sea? The Real Number →
Why it works the kitchen science
A starch net
Gritzer explains that heated cheese proteins squeeze together and push out fat, which makes clumps and grease; the cooked cornstarch thickens the mix and gets in the proteins' way, so they cannot bond tightly.
A 1-minute rest
Letting the gel, the drained pasta and the water lose their boiling-hot edge keeps the cheese below the temperature where it seizes, while the dish is still hot when it reaches the table.
Step by step
- Step 1
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the spaghetti and cook, stirring, until al dente, usually 8 to 10 minutes.
- Step 2
Meanwhile, stir the cornstarch into the water in a small bowl. Heat the pepper in a small dry saucepan over medium-high heat about 1 minute, until fragrant and lightly toasted.
- Step 3
Stir the slurry again, pour it into the pepper and stir and swirl about 30 seconds, until it turns into a clear, thick gel. Take it off the heat and let it cool 1 minute.
- Step 4
In a large mixing bowl, stir the pecorino and the pepper gel together into a stiff, smooth paste. Ladle about 1/4 cup pasta water into the small saucepan, swirl to pick up the last of the gel and stir it into the paste.
- Step 5
Scoop out 1 cup of pasta water, then drain the spaghetti. Let it sit 1 minute to lose its hottest heat.
- Step 6
Add the pasta and 1/4 cup of the reserved water to the cheese paste and stir and toss. Keep adding water 1/4 cup at a time, about 2 minutes in all, until the sauce is creamy and coats every strand in a silky glaze.
- Step 7
Taste for salt and serve right away on warm plates, with more pecorino and pepper.
Cacio e Pepe (Pecorino and Black Pepper, the Never-Clumps Method)
Serves 3 · 3 small plates (2 large) · 20 min total
Pasta
- Salt, for the water
- 1/2 lb dried spaghetti (or tonnarelli)
Sauce
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper, plus more for serving
- 1 packed cup very finely grated Pecorino Romano (5 oz), plus more for serving
Method
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the spaghetti and cook, stirring, until al dente, usually 8 to 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, stir the cornstarch into the water in a small bowl. Heat the pepper in a small dry saucepan over medium-high heat about 1 minute, until fragrant and lightly toasted.
- Stir the slurry again, pour it into the pepper and stir and swirl about 30 seconds, until it turns into a clear, thick gel. Take it off the heat and let it cool 1 minute.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir the pecorino and the pepper gel together into a stiff, smooth paste. Ladle about 1/4 cup pasta water into the small saucepan, swirl to pick up the last of the gel and stir it into the paste.
- Scoop out 1 cup of pasta water, then drain the spaghetti. Let it sit 1 minute to lose its hottest heat.
- Add the pasta and 1/4 cup of the reserved water to the cheese paste and stir and toss. Keep adding water 1/4 cup at a time, about 2 minutes in all, until the sauce is creamy and coats every strand in a silky glaze.
- Taste for salt and serve right away on warm plates, with more pecorino and pepper.
Adapted from Daniel Gritzer, "Perfect Cacio e Pepe," Serious Eats (published January 25, 2025, updated February 9, 2026), serves 3. We follow it as written: 1/2 lb spaghetti; 1 tsp cornstarch in 1/4 cup water; 1 tsp coarse black pepper toasted about 1 minute; 1 packed cup (5 oz) finely grated Pecorino Romano made into a paste with the gel; 1/4 cup pasta water to rinse the pan; the drained pasta rested 1 minute; and pasta water added in 1/4-cup amounts. The spaghetti cooking time is the package's; the 1-minute pause after draining is Gritzer's. Serious Eats. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Grate the pecorino as fine as dust; Gritzer found the star-shaped holes of a box grater work better than a rasp.
- If the paste is hard to blend, the research paper used a blender; Gritzer says a spoon is usually enough.
- Use a lightly salted pot: pecorino is already very salty.
- No cream and no butter: Gritzer says both dull the sharp, pure flavor the dish is known for.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Cacio e pepe is a shepherd's dish. Folklore: Wikipedia calls it "a common story" and says pepper was probably added later.
- Only pecorino, never Parmigiano. Disputed: Parla (Serious Eats) says some Roman cooks use pecorino alone and others mix in Parmigiano.
- Butter, oil or cream is cheating. Disputed: Gritzer leaves them out for flavor; Parla notes many Roman restaurants emulsify olive oil into the sauce; Serious Eats' earlier recipe by J. Kenji López-Alt uses both butter and oil.
- Starch is not traditional. Disputed: added cornstarch is new; Gritzer notes the traditional method already relies on the starch in the pasta water, and that the Roman chef Luciano Monosilio has also written about adding starch.
- Science won a prize for this sauce. Documented: Wikipedia records the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize in physics.
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