Ahh cacio e pepe. Where to start? You may have heard of it before, you may not have, but by the end of reading this post, I can almost guarantee you’ll be looking up all the menus of the Italian restaurants near you to see if they serve it. Cacio e pepe directly translates to “cheese and pepper.” It is a Roman pasta dish whose primary ingredients include spaghetti (typically tonnarelli), Pecorino Romano cheese, and pepper. Before we go on, let me just tell you my story with this delicious dish and then we’ll go from there. Don’t make fun of me for my immature food preferences, or do if you have to, but regardless, I’ve always been and always will be a fettuccini alfredo and mac and cheese lovin gal. Even though neither of those dishes are authentic Italian foods, they’re some of my most ordered meals. I mean cheese and pasta. Can’t really go wrong there.
In the summer of 2019, I went to Europe for a month and spent two of those weeks in Italy. On my birthday, my friend and I went out to dinner in Rome to a restaurant called Cajo & Gajo. Side note: it was a great restaurant in the Trastevere neighborhood and all the staff were so nice and fun – highly recommend! As I was looking through their menu, I noticed a pasta dish called “Tonnarello Cheese and Pepper.” I love cheese and I have nothing against pepper, so I thought why not give it a try? Oh. My. Goodness. Thank heavens I ordered it. It was INCREDIBLE. The perfect balance of cheese and pepper, the perfect amount of richness where it wasn’t too heavy, everything about it was just perfect. It was like the best parts of mac and cheese combined with the best parts of fettuccine alfredo combined with pepper and just overall cheesy yummy goodness (like those descriptor words? lol). I just remember trying it for the first time and being shocked at how good it was. My friend even took a video of me trying it and you can see my face light up when I had it. I’ll spare you from seeing that video, but here’s a picture of it before I dug into it:
I was so excited about my newfound discovery and was shocked that I had never had it or heard of it before, especially because I am a self-proclaimed fettuccine alfredo and mac and cheese connoisseur. Later that night, I did some research about it and found out that it’s a very authentic Roman dish that can be tricky to cook, despite the minimal amount of ingredients. I have yet to try making it, but apparently adding in and cooking the cheese is a difficult task to get right. I guess that could be one reason as to why I had never seen it on a menu in America before, but still kinda strange considering how amazing it is. Regardless, I was obsessed. I proceeded to order cacio e pepe for the remainder of the dinners that we had left in Rome (the second night I got it at Tonnarello in the Trastevere neighborhood – again delicious, but I can’t recall where I got it on the third night). Once we left Rome, I was surprised that cacio e pepe wasn’t on many menus around the rest of Italy, but it made sense considering that it’s a Roman dish and every part of Italy has their own special regional food.
Fast forward to current time in America. Well first of all, I’m still sad that I’m no longer in Europe, but since being home, I’ve had a lot of time to look at the menus of a ton of different Italian restaurants near my home to see if any of them offer cacio e pepe. None of them do. IT’S CRAZY. There is a delicious Italian dish out there in the world and not a lot of people know about it. How?! I mean, I’m sure there are so many authentic regional dishes from around the world that we don’t know about, but I’m particularly shocked that there is a cheesy pasta dish out there that America has yet to catch on to. I mean cheese and carbs. We love both of those things here.
I will say though, when I first came back to America, I didn’t see cacio e pepe offered anywhere. It’s been almost 2 years since I was in Italy, and I can confirm that I’ve seen cacio e pepe become a tiny bit more present here.
Funnily enough, a few weeks ago my cousin and I went to Bloomington, Indiana and were craving Italian food for dinner. I was on find-dinner-duty and as I was looking at the menus of the local Italian restaurants, I. Saw. It. With my own two eyes, I saw cacio e pepe on a menu at a tiny Italian restaurant in Bloomington, Indiana – out of all places! We went to Osteria Rago, which was an adorable restaurant that only served homemade foods with fresh and local ingredients. You bet yourself I ordered cacio e pepe and it was amazing! It tasted very authentic and it brought me right back to when I was in Rome. My cousin tried some of mine and also loved it. Here’s a picture of it in all it’s glory:
As we know, I am also a very big Trader Joe’s fan. I have recently found out that they sell frozen cacio e pepe as well as cacio e pepe filled ravioli in the refrigerated section. As expected, I bought both right away and have tried each of them. Again, just want to profess my love for Trader Joe’s – it is home, it is happiness, it is all good things, but I hate to say that neither dish impressed me. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t bad, but they absolutely did not taste like the authentic dish to me. The ravioli tasted really good, but it’s ravioli, so it’s not really fair to compare it to the spaghetti version. I had high hopes for the frozen cacio e pepe, but I was pretty disappointed. The sauce was way too peppery and way too creamy. It didn’t taste like what I’ve had at restaurants at all. I’m so glad to see Trader Joe’s recognize and recreate cacio e pepe, but it sadly isn’t the best. A+ for effort though – love you TJ’s!
I’m only in my young twenties, but still, as an adult, it can be kind of embarrassing when I sometimes order mac and cheese and fettuccine alfredo at restaurants. That’s why it was magical when I discovered cacio e pepe. This shame-free adult version of mac and cheese is so delicious, totally satisfies the mac and cheese craving, and feels just as elevated and mature as the dishes that my friends and family order when we got out to eat. So if any of ya’ll Italian restaurants in America want to start serving cacio e pepe, that’d really help a gal out!
In all honesty, I kind of like that cacio e pepe is a rare find in America. It makes the dish that much more special and exciting. I feel so grateful to have stumbled upon it in Rome, and I dream about going back there and having it. Wherever you are, if you see cacio e pepe on a menu, I highly recommend and hope that you order it! If the restaurant you’re at is good, then I’m sure their cacio e pepe will be too. This pasta dish truly is magical and delicious and all the positive adjectives I could ever think of. Here’s to dreaming about it until the next day that we can all try it!
I hope this was a fun, appetite-inducing, and somewhat educational read for you! If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment down below. If you’d like to go through some more food related content, check this page out!
