Cacio e pepe, a deliciously simple yet notoriously fussy pasta dish, can be easily translated into a much less fickle, more reliable mac and cheese! Literally meaning “cheese and pepper”, it’s a classic Roman pasta that requires little more than pantry staples and a little practice and patience.
I absolutely love traditional cacio e pepe because it’s both delicious and I always have the ingredients on hand to make it, especially on those “I don’t get paid for 5 more days and I have $20” weeks. A little cheese, dried pasta, peppercorns and salty, starchy pasta water are all you need for that perfect pasta. But there’s a big “but”…unless you’re a pasta pro, it can and WILL separate on you at will and with no warning, turning your would-be luscious and creamy pasta into a grainy, greasy mess. There are tricks to be discovered to make this recipe turn out every time, but that’s for another day and another recipe. Today, we make mac!
This recipe uses a classic bechamel sauce, plus mozzarella, Parmesan and Pecorino Romano to make an ultra-creamy mac and cheese. Pecorino Romano is the classic cheese in cacio e pepe and adding a little here gives you just enough funk without overwhelming the flavor of the sauce. Cavatappi is a great pasta shape to use here, because it’s shaped like a corkscrew and all those nooks and crannies get filled with the cheesy sauce. You can definitely substitute another similar pasta shape, depending on what you can find or what you have on hand.
The original recipe came from A Cozy Kitchen; Adrianna mentions that she used to make Kraft mac ‘n cheese and grind a ton of black pepper on top. I related to this on a spiritual level (I still do this). This is a much more elevated version, but still speaks to that craving.
[tasty-recipe id=”36878″]
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