Bucatini Cacio e Pepe is a classic Italian pasta dish made with bucatini pasta, Pecorino Romano cheese, and freshly ground black pepper. It is a simple dish, but it is incredibly flavorful and comforting!! With just a few high-quality ingredients and a little bit of technique, you can create a pasta dish that is a crowd pleaser.
I have noticed that this simple pasta dish is appearing more often in Pasta restaurants here in Florida. My kids love pasta and I always try to introduce new recipes to them, bonus if these recipes are from the Mediterranean area where I grew up.
Bucatini Pasta
I used to have cacio e pepe with spaghetti but recently I have noticed the shift towards bucatini pasta. I am very happy to see bucatini become more prominent in restaurant menus as well as widely available in grocery stores.
Bucatini is a thick pasta, similar to spaghetti in shape but thicker and it has a hollow center. My friend Jacqui who lives in Italy has a food blog dedicated solely to pasta, so if you want to check out more information about Bucatini specifically feel free to read her article about bucatini pasta. Her blog is a gem of authentic Italian pasta recipes:).
I love using bucatini to make a pasta dish with ground beef and mushrooms, it’s one of our family’s favorite dinners.
What does Cacio e Pepe mean?
Cacio e Pepe means literally ‘cheese and pepper’. I didn’t know that initially because even though I watched a lot of Italian TV when I lived in Albania (that’s how I learned Italian), I always knew the word ‘formaggio’ to be used for cheese.
So cacio e pepe refers generally to a simple Roman pasta dish made with just 3 ingredients, pasta, Pecorino Romano cheese and freshly ground pepper.
What cheese do you use to make this pasta dish?
The traditional cheese for Bucatini Cacio e Pepe would be Pecorino Romano. Pecorino Romano is an Italian cheese, made with Sheep’s Milk, it’s a hard and salty cheese.
I usually buy it in blocks and grate it myself. The pre-grated one comes with other chemicals in it to prevent it from clumping but those chemicals are not in your favor when making Cacio e Pepe.
Pro-Tip: Grate Pecorino Romano while you set pasta to boil.
Simplifying Bucatini Cacio e Pepe
So if you’re from Italy or have lived in Italy for long periods of time, I doubt you’ll ever come across this blog post because chances are you know how to make cacio e pepe with spaghetti or bucatini (or any pasta ) with your eyes closed.
So the below instructions are more geared toward someone trying the recipe for the first time so I’ll go in some more detail to make sure you are successful in making this dish.
- Boil pasta 4 minutes less than al dente in less water than what you’d normally use.
- While pasta boils, toast grounded peppercorn.
- Add pasta water to toasted black pepper.
- Grate cheese and add pasta water over cheese to make a homogenous paste.
- Transfer pasta to skillet with black pepper sauce and let finish cooking.
- Finally add the cheese sauce to pasta and pepper and mix well to create a creamy pasta.
- Serve right away and enjoy:))
Ingredients I used to Make this Pasta Dish
You’d be surprised how very few ingredients are in this pasta dish. I used bucatini pasta, Pecorino cheese, peppercorn and while not traditional I added 2-3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese because my kids love it. But if you don’t count water and salt, that’s just a handful of ingredients.
Some Process Pictures
I like to take multiple pictures while cooking a recipe, I feel it helps to clarify some of the tips and several times readers have told me they find those useful when skimming the page:).
Pro-Tip: Picking high quality cheese and grinding the peppercorns will elevate the taste of your bucatini dish!!
Sonila’s Tips and Notes
Here’s a summary of my tips to make a successful recipe.
- Boil the pasta for few minutes less than al dente.
- Use real Pecorino cheese made with sheep’s milk.
- Starchy pasta water is your friend. That’s what makes this dish creamy without using butter or oil.
- You can add some other cheeses to your taste but make sure the main cheese is Pecorino. I do add 2-3 tbsps of grated parmesan to the mix because my kids love the flavor. But the majority of the cheese has to be Pecorino.
- To get a lump free dish, mix some pasta water with the grated cheese until it’s like a thick sauce. Then you add that over pasta and pepper mix in the pan.
- Use a large pan even if you’re making just a portion of this pasta. If you’re cooking it for the whole family, make sure pan is not only large but deep too.
How to serve this bucatini dish?
My favorite way to have this dish is with a side salad and a glass of wine. Keep it simple:). But when it’s for a family weeknight dinner, especially after my kids have played sports I love to serve some protein with it too.
Here’s one variation when we served this pasta with baked salmon and salad.
Bucatini Cacio e Pepe
Equipment
- 1 Pasta Pot
- 1 Pasta tongs
Ingredients
- 1 lb bucatini 453 grams
- 1 tbsp peppercorn
- 3.5 cups grated Pecorino cheese about 150 grams
- 2 tbsp grated parmesan
- 4 quarts water
- 1 tbsp sea salt
Instructions
- Add 4 quarts of water to pasta pot, set it to boil. Add about 1 tbsp of sea salt.
- Once water boils, add bucatini to pot and stir occasionally to make sure all the noodles are submerged in water. If packaging says to cook for 10 minutes, plan to cook the pasta for about 6-7 minutes.
- Use a mortar and pestle to ground peppercorns. Add ground peppercorn to a hot skillet and move constantly so they toast but don't burn.
- Grate the cheese and set aside. Add the 2 tbsp of parmesan over grated Pecorino cheese.
- Once pasta is cooked for 6-7 minutes, get 2 cups of pasta water and pour it over the toasted black pepper. Mix to create a sauce and let cook in medium heat. Grab the pasta with tongs and transfer it little by little from pot to skillet. Mix well to incorporate the pepper flavors. Lower the heat a little bit once you're done transfering the pasta. Pasta now will finish cooking in the skillet. Flip the skillet occasionally to contents rotate.
- In the meantime, add ladle of pasta water over grated cheese. Mix until you get a creamy sauce. Add some more pasta water until you get the consistency you want.
- Pour the cheese mix over pasta in the skillet once the sauce on the sides of the pasta looks creamy. Mix well to incorporate the cheese into a creamy sauce with pasta. If more pasta water is needed, add about half a ladle at a time until you achieve the desired results.
- Serve warm right away!! And enjoy:)).
Notes
- Always use a large skillet even when making 1 serving of this pasta, it helps to mix the pasta into the sauce if you just flip the contents of the skillet a bit instead of mixing with utensils.
- Normally you’d cook 1 lb of pasta in 6 quarts of water but we are cooking them in 4 quarts to get concentrated starch in the water.
- You don’t have to add the 2 tbsps of parmesan I added, my kids just love the taste so I added some.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you’re trying to make an authentic cacio e pepe, no butter or cream needed. You’ll be able to achieve a creamy bucatini cacio e pepe by using starch water, good quality pecorino cheese (with sheep’s milk) and freshly cracked black pepper.
While I normally love leftovers because they make for effortless meals, I wouldn’t recommend trying to get leftovers out of this recipe. Bucatini cacio e pepe is best served right away!
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More Pasta Recipes
I don’t think there’s a family with little kids that doesn’t make pasta at least once on a weeknight!! Kids love it, dinner cooks fast so it’s a win win.
- Sausage and mushrooms pasta
- Baked turkey pasta
- Aji de fideos (Spicy Bolivian Pasta)
- Baked fettuccine with feta cheese
- Shell pasta in Butternut Squash sauce
- Pasta in Roasted Red Pepper sauce
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