DougEECummings: Full recipe from [TipHero](http://tiphero.com/cacio-e-pepe/)
**CACIO E PEPE**
Serves 2 to 3
**INGREDIENTS:**
* 6 ounces bucatini or spaghetti
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
* ½ cup grated Parmesan or Grana Padano
* ¼ cup grated pecorino Romano
**DIRECTIONS:**
1. In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Salt the water, then add the pasta and cook for 2 minutes less than the recommended time on the package directions.
1. Drain the pasta, and reserve ¾ cup of the pasta cooking water. Set aside.
1. Melt the butter in the now-empty pot over medium heat. Add the pepper and cook for 1 minute to toast the pepper.
1. Add ½ of the reserved pasta water to the pot and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and add the Parmesan and pecorino, stirring until melted.
1. Add the pasta and turn with tongs to coat in the sauce. Add more of the pasta water if the sauce seems dry.
1. Cook for 2 to 4 minutes until the pasta is al dente and thoroughly coated in the sauce.
Ariel_Etaime: More cheese please
yourgifrecipesucks: Some additional tips:
1. Using toasted and fresh black pepper doubles up on flavor, giving the dish more complexity
2. Grating the cheese very finely on a Microplane instead of shredding it helps it incorporate more smoothly
3. Finishing the pasta and cheese in a separate skillet ensures that the cheese doesn’t clump up from the residual heat in the pasta pan
4. Cooking the pasta in a skillet instead of a pot helps concentrate the starch in the water, making the sauce smoother
5. Order takeout because this is going to be a runny, tasteless mess that is only justified by the total lack of effort involved
6. If this recipe still looks like a good idea, ignore step 5. because you’re broke, it’s 4pm and you haven’t eaten anything all day, you’re still hungover from last night, and all you’ve got in the pantry is pasta and cheese
7. If you’re an online culinary content producer, see step 6. because hey you’ve got a deadline to make
7/10
LeroyoJenkins: One suggestion: don’t use butter. It isn’t necessary, and isn’t included in the original recipe. And use only pecorino, no parmesan.
Cacio e pepe is probably the simplest and easiest to make pasta. Besides the pasta, water, salt and oil, you only need two ingredients: cacio & pepe.
Shtankces: This looks great. Thanks for posting it. Going to try it tomorrow night.
literocola431: How did they manage to fuck up italys most simple pasta recipe (next to aglio e olio)?
Don’t use butter, maybe use a splash of cooking water, add pasta to a hot skillet and incorporate sauce to that. Stirring a liquid mess with pasta added will only result in a gross soupy consistency and super over cooked pasta.
Take a few minutes and google an actual recipe which is simpler and much better
qawsedrf12: Holy F, that looked like a ton of pepper
Erchamion1: So…it’s just pepper…it is pasta flavoured with pepper and some cheese, but mostly pepper.
imjustheretodomyjob: Saw “Pepe” and was hoping to see a sorely missed frog……