Cacio e Pepe

Overview

Italian cuisine takes advantage of a core principle in cooking that other neighboring cuisines tend to forget - simple is delicious.

Highlighting the unique flavours of a product that is local to your region is a classic tenet of Italian cooking.

Cacio e Pepe is no exception. It is, in fact, one of the most popular Italian dishes in the world for a reason. The best part is - you don’t need two days and a massive grocery list to produce something delicious (sorry France).

It translates to “cheese and pepper”, because that’s all it really is. With a little bit of butter and constant agitation of good quality pasta (and its boiled water), you can get that beautiful silky sauce that constantly haunts our dreams.

Pecorino Romano, a hard sheep’s milk cheese, gives the pasta a sharper bite. When blended with a softer Grana Padano, it adds a layer of complexity that leaves your palate bursting with flavour.

Duckhorn Decoy Rose

Wine Pairing

Cacio e Pepe is a dish that you can pair both white and red wine with. We will help guide you to the right style for each type, leaving it up to you to decide what style you’re feeling like when the time comes.

Red Pairing

For pairing red wines with this dish, you need something lighter as any heavy wines will overpower this dish. A light to medium bodied Chianti works well, as does Pinot Nero (Italian Pinot Noir), and Barbera. You should avoid bolder styles of these wines typically labelled as “riserva” or “gran selezione” as they can be too powerful for this dish. However, if you have access to well aged bottles of these that have had years to soften, then you could be in for a real treat!

White Pairing

For pairing white wines, they need to be crisp and dry with a medium body. We found that an unoaked/lightly oaked Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, or even a bone-dry Riesling works well. Avoid anything that has a heavy oak or has any sweetness as these will clash with the flavors.

Our Pairing

We always like to try bolder pairings that may not be the norm, and this one is no exception. We thought, if you can pair this with either red or white then you should be able to enjoy the best of both worlds. So we tried this with the Decoy Rose and it worked wonderfully. A well balanced Rose that is bone dry and medium bodied, with flavor notes of citrus, strawberry, and orange peel that work really well with this dish. You can read the full tasting notes and review here.

Ingredients (~4 Servings)

• 0.5lb of Spaghetti alla Chitarra

• 1/3 cup good quality olive oil

• 1-2 Tbsp of freshly ground black pepper

  • Please, for the love of God, grind the peppercorns yourself. Pepper is in the name, after all…

  • If you want to increase the sophistication of the dish, toast the peppercorns in a pan on medium-high heat for a few minutes until fragrant.

• 1-2 Tbsp of unsalted good quality butter

• 1.5 cups of grated Pecorino Romano

• 0.5 cups of Grana Padano

Steps

• Bring the Pasta to a Boil

  • Bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil.

  • If you want to increase the silkiness of your sauce, fill the pot to just cover the pasta.

    • This will increase the level of starch in the water for when you add it to make the sauce later.

  • Cook the pasta until its 90% cooked (almost perfectly al-dente) and remove from the water into a bowl.

  • Add a splash of olive oil and mix to prevent the pasta from sticking together.

  • Reserve the pasta water - you’ll need it!

• Begin Building the Sauce

  • Add 1/3 cup of good quality olive oil, 1-2 Tbsp of freshly ground black pepper, and 1-2 Tbsp of good quality butter to a saucepan on high heat.

  • Stir for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

  • Add 0.5 cups of pasta water and boil until reduced by half.

  • Add the pasta and another 0.5 cup of pasta water.

  • Now, make the sauce!

  • This will require you to stir the pasta and mixture frequently. Feel free to mix vigorously for around 5 minutes.

    • The reason that you mix a lot is to draw out the starch in the pasta. The combination of the starchy pasta water along with constant agitation of the pasta will form a nice thick sauce.

• Finish the Pasta

  • Remove the pasta mixture from heat and add 1/3 cups of pasta liquid.

  • Add the 1.5 cups of grated Pecorino Romano in handfuls while stirring until a creamy sauce begins to form.

  • Add the 0.5 cups of Grana Padano.

  • If the sauce looks a little dry, add a splash of pasta water and stir the pasta until a creamy sauce has formed.

• Serve topped with some extra Pecorino and a few cracks of freshly ground pepper!