Latest news with #cacioepepe
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The Pasta Queen's favourite cacio e pepe in Rome
The cheesy, peppery pasta dish has become as viral as chef Nadia Munno's cooking videos. Here are her favourite places to get it in her hometown of Rome. For Roman chef and businesswoman Nadia Caterina Munno – better known to her five million-strong legion of social media followers as "The Pasta Queen" – the rich pasta dish of cacio e pepe, represents everything she loves about her hometown. "Romans are loud, aggressive, but really friendly. Their friendliness is a form of love," she says. "Roman cuisine is [also] very punchy and aggressive – up [in northern Italy], dishes are more delicate – and cacio e pepe is very traditionally Roman." Indeed, made by simply tossing pasta, Pecorino cheese, hot pasta water and toasted black peppercorns together, cacio e pepe (literally: "'cheese and pepper") is Roman cuisine par excellence: humble, salty and spontaneous. In recent years, the dish has become a firm favourite overseas, with restaurants from New York to London proudly serving their versions of the savoury recipe. It has also become one of the main stars of Munno's larger-than-life home cooking videos, which are peppered with a Sophia Loren-esque theatricality and replete with gushing references to the "pasta gods". Munno's own royal moniker may pose a rather grand claim, but she's hardly a usurper: she heralds from a family that has been producing pasta for centuries, even garnering the nickname of the "Macaronis". "To be a 'pasta queen' you have to have an experience and a background: these are the dishes I cooked all my life," she explains. "I want to teach people about the values of Italian food, which bring people together, to enjoy life a bit more." She adds: "Food shouldn't be treated as an afterthought. Empires were forged on food." And though Rome's history may be imperial, cacio e pepe – much like other classic Roman pasta dishes like carbonara and amatriciana – is a humble dish, deeply rooted in the city's working class culture, with influences from the nearby shepherds who moved to Rome from the Apennine mountains. What may come to a surprise to some is that cacio e pepe is not even one of the most consumed dishes in the Roman kitchen. Its recent popularity, Munno says, is largely a product of social media marketing. "It's not as sought after from Romans as from tourists who come to visit the city," Munno notes. "It's definitely traditional, but cacio e pepereally has gone viral, being popularised internationally." All this notwithstanding, the dish is now a consolidated part of Rome's culinary repertoire, a staple in trattorie and family homes across the city. Here are Munno's favourite places to get cacio e pepe in Rome. 1. Best for eating cacio e pepe like a local: Felice a Testaccio If there's any restaurant in Rome which can legitimately lay claim to being the "king" of cacio e pepe, it's Felice a Testaccio – and Munno recommends going there to experience the dish like a true local. "I liked going to [Felice a Testaccio] because I grew up nearby," Munno says. "It's a place which is popular with the local people, and the food is amazing." For Felice a Testaccio, cacio e pepe is a veritable artform – and one whose creation is displayed to clients, as the mantecatura (emulsification) of the pasta in the Pecorino cheese is performed tableside. Using fresh tonnarelli (thick spaghetti), Felice a Testaccio's cacio e pepeis decadent, sharp and creamy, the Roman dish in its most sumptuous form. As its name suggests, Felice is located in the city's scruffy, vibrant Testaccio neighbourhood, which was built on the remains of an ancient Roman trash heap and the port that serviced the city with its food. Today, the neighbourhood maintains its culinary tradition as the location of the monumental Testaccio food market. "It's one of the main markets of Rome," Munno says. The district, located south of the city centre, doesn't quite reek of "dolce vita" in the postcard-perfect, Hollywood sense – think less Roman Holiday and more graffitied walls and post-war apartment blocks – but it's as quintessentially Roman as it gets, and Munno recommends sinking your teeth into – and its food. "The area doesn't get enough love," Munno says. "But it's very Roman." Website: Via Mastro Giorgio, 29, 00153Phone: + 39 06 574 6800Instagram: @feliceatestaccio 2. Best for a gourmet palate: Roscioli Salumeria con Cucina When it comes to finding a more refined, gourmet-approved take on Roman cuisine, then Roscioli Salumeria con Cucina is your port of call. The restaurant – opened near the Campo de' Fiori street market in 1972 and now part of a local chain of bakeries and eateries – offers sophisticated, yet still authentic, takes on classic Roman and other Italian dishes, within an elegant setting that attracts an exclusive clientele. Its ingredients are sourced from the best suppliers, and its cacio e pepe is no exception. "Roscioli is truly authentic Roman [food]," Munno says. "What they serve is truly amazing." Using fresh tagliolini pasta, Nepalese black pepper and a touch of extra virgin olive oil to help bind the sauce, Roscioli's cacio e pepe is delicate and refined, yet still full of the tangy saltiness of the traditional Roman recipe. "It's incredibly gorgeous," Munno says. Reserve in advance, as bookings can be competitive. Website: Via dei Giubbonari, 21, 00186Phone: +39 06 687 5287Instagram: @rosciolisalumeria 3. Best for a cosy experience: Hostaria da Cesare Hostaria da Cesare, which celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2021, brims with nostalgia, with a distinct "frozen-in-time-feel": a time capsule of what may seem like a bygone era. Warm, wood-panelled interiors give it a distinctly cosy, mid-century charm. Da Cesare's cacio e pepe – one of the city's best, according to Munno – is traditional and rich, made with spaghetti, coated in a flurry of shaved Pecorino and black pepper. Conveniently placed in the central Prati quarter, an elegant, 19th-Century Parisian-esque grid of streets close to the Vatican, Hostaria Da Cesare is centrally located but also somewhat shielded from the tourist throngs. "It isn't particularly touristy, but it's getting more attention," Munno says. Website: Via Crescenzio, 13, 00193Phone: +39 06 686 1227 4. Best for date night: Trattoria Da Teo Trattoria Da Teo doesn't feel like an ordinary restaurant – it feels more like a dining room a family graciously opened up to the public. Deep in the Trastevere district south of the Vatican, Da Teo is set in a neighbourhood which – in spite of its popularity with tourists – has preserved its medieval charm and a fierce community spirit. "Trastevere is magical," Munno says. "It's a crazy neighbourhood which gives you a whole different experience [and] energy." "You have people dancing, clubs, young people, cats," she adds. "The heart and vibe of Rome." Munno believes Da Teo offers a taste of Trastevere's "intense, exhilarating Roman vibe" and recommends going there with a significant other. "Going [there] with a lover is so romantic," she says. Tossed in an especially thick, creamy homestyle sauce, Da Teo's take on the Roman dish feels less like a restaurant serving and more akin to something your nonna would whip you up for Sunday lunch. Website: Piazza dei Ponziani, 7A, 00153Phone: +39 06 581 8355Instagram: @trattoriadateo 5. Best for a unique dining experience: Flavio al Velavevodetto Flavio al Veloavevodetto is perhaps one of the most unique eateries in a city packed with historical oddities, in that it is located quite literally inside an ancient Roman trash heap: the Monte Cocci, a hill made up of discarded amphorae (vases). "It's an incredible experience you can't get anywhere else," Munno says. In spite of its remarkable setting, the restaurant nevertheless makes simple, traditional food for a largely local clientele – and, Munno notes, is a great place to experience dishes like cacio e pepe. "[Flavio] has a typical family style," Munno says. "It isn't super fancy. It's a place for day-to-day Romans, one of those places you can't eat badly." Flavio al Veloavevodetto serves a cacio e pepe which, as Italians would say, is as dio comanda (God wills it) – using thick tonnarelli and abundant Pecorino. While Flavio al Veloavevodetto's flagship is in Testaccio, you can also experience their creations over in a more recently opened branch in the more centrally located Prati district. Munno still recommends the original. "Tourists should come to experience it," she says. Website: Via di Monte Testaccio, 97, 00153 / Piazza dei Quiriti, 4-5,Phone: +39 06 574 4194 / +39 06 3600 0009Instagram: @alvelavevodetto BBC Travel's The SpeciaList is a series of guides to popular and emerging destinations around the world, as seen through the eyes of local experts and tastemakers. -- For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
CNN
09-05-2025
- Science
- CNN
Did 8 physicists make the perfect cacio e pepe? I tested the research
Few things are as impressive to dinner party guests as a perfectly executed à la minute pasta dish. As a Roman-born foodie, I would argue that cacio e pepe, a Roman pasta recipe that is as delicious and simple as it is finicky, is a bold menu choice for the novice cook. The name says it all: pasta, cacio (cheese) and pepe (pepper). That's it. That's the recipe. 'There is no margin for error with just pasta, Pecorino Romano cheese, and black pepper,' Michele Casadei Massari, CEO and executive chef of Lucciola Italian Restaurant in Manhattan, told CNN via email. 'The main challenge lies in achieving a stable emulsion: If the cheese is overheated or the starch-water balance is wrong, the sauce will separate,' Massari said. When that happens, the pecorino forms a gloopy cheesy mess, sticking to everything but the noodles — sad and naked. So, how can one reliably avoid unpleasant dinnertime disasters? Either by practicing a lot — and inevitably making mistakes in the process, as I have — or by using science to guide the way. Eight Italian physicists collaborated to crack the code of a foolproof cacio e pepe recipe, studying the properties of cheese, starch and water at different temperatures to learn how to replicate a flawless dish every time. The study was published April 29 in the journal Physics of Fluids. The magic trick? Adding a precise amount of cornstarch relative to the overall quantity of cheese used, to keep the dreaded clumps at bay. When I first heard about the method, the Roman cuisine purist in me was skeptical. Too many times, I've read cheat sheets for the perfect carbonara dish in which the solution to perfect, non-scrambled-egg sauce is to add cream (please, do not do this). In the interest of objectivity, I had to test the recipe myself and talk to these fellow Italians behind the research. In a conversation in Italian, three of the study authors shared that the research came from their frustration for one too many cacio e pepe dishes gone wrong. Thanks to the group's familiarity with the concept of 'liquid-liquid phase separation,' they knew how to investigate the problem scientifically. 'At some point, the eight of us were all at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden (Germany), some as PhD students, some as postdocs,' said study coauthor Daniel Maria Busiello, a statistical physicist at Italy's University of Padova. At that time, 'something we'd often do was cooking Italian recipes, not just for Italians, but for others as well.' Making big batches of cacio e pepe to feed other hungry scientists turned out to be a near-impossible feat. 'There were problems with controlling the temperature of the sauce and of the noodles, causing these clumps,' Busiello said. 'I remember a time the dish came out inedible. Something clicked then,' said study coauthor Ivan Di Terlizzi, one of the group's top cooks, and a statistical physicist at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden. Di Terlizzi approached fellow researcher Giacomo Bartolucci, now a biophysicist at the University of Barcelona in Spain, with a working theory about possible commonalities between the behavior of cacio e pepe sauce and that of aqueous solutions of proteins inside cells. Bartolucci had focused on phase separation and the aggregation of proteins for his doctoral research. The scientists set out to understand whether the cheese and water in this recipe could be scientifically described as 'a system that undergoes phase separation at high temperatures,' in Busiello's words. 'We had a theoretical framework and a practical problem,' Busiello added. Innovating on traditional Italian recipes, even on solid scientific grounds, is a high-risk endeavor. Given the touchy subject, the study authors are of course all Italians, by design. 'If we have to piss off a bunch of people, at least let it be eight Italians who did it,' Di Terlizzi said. To investigate the behavior of cacio e pepe sauce under heat, the researchers conducted experiments recreating the cooking process in a controlled setup. 'We prepared small batches of sauce using precise amounts of cheese, starch, and water, and gradually heated them using a sous vide device to carefully control the temperature,' Di Terlizzi explained. 'At each stage, we took a small sample of the sauce, placed it in a petri dish and photographed it from above to observe how clumps formed. This allowed us to track how changes in temperature and ingredients affected the smoothness of the sauce.' The researchers found that the concentration of starch in the sauce is the key factor influencing its stability. If the proportion of starch falls below 1% of the total cheese weight, the cheese will enter what the authors call the 'Mozzarella phase' — in which clumps are inescapable and the dish is ruined — at lower temperatures. A 2% to 3% starch-to-cheese ratio yields the best results. In the recipe for two published in the study, the researchers used 5 grams (0.18 ounce) of cornstarch or potato starch dissolved in water, heated up gently to form a gel, then cooled down with more water before being blended with 200 grams (7 ounces) of pecorino cheese. Sodium citrate, a common additive used to make smooth mac and cheese, also worked well in their recipe, although according to Di Terlizzi it lent the dish a slightly 'cheese single' aftertaste. The scientifically engineered pecorino cream can withstand temperature changes better than the classic cheese-starchy water mixture made with pasta cooking water and can even be reheated. Temperature is in fact another key factor that can make or break the sauce, which has to do with how the proteins in the cheese behave when heated. 'The sauce is stable if created at low temperatures and the starch bonded with the proteins. If, after that happens, you expose the sauce to high temperatures, proteins can no longer interact,' Di Terlizzi said. If the emulsion of cheese and starch happens at high temperatures though, 'there's no guarantee that proteins will bond with other proteins, which causes the aggregation, before they bond with the starch.' The scientifically optimized recipe will yield solid results for large batches of pasta, as the stable sauce will give you more flexibility dealing with a large volume of piping hot noodles, cooling down more slowly than a smaller batch of pasta would. When trying the scientifically optimized recipe, don't throw away all the pasta cooking water! You'll still need some of it in the final mixing of all ingredients (the 'mantecatura' in Italian). Just be careful to let it cool down slightly. When I tested the recipe, the instructions felt straightforward, and the process was quick, though it required a few more steps than what I'm used to (such as forming the starch gel on the stove). It was frankly odd to work with a pecorino cream that felt so smooth — it almost reminded me of a jarred sauce. Nothing changes as far as the pepper goes. Just crack as much of it as you'd like and toast it in a pan to release its aroma. My husband and I enjoyed the dish. It tasted great, and dealing with a pecorino cream that needs much less babying at the stove and allows for a much less time-sensitive mantecatura is a definite plus. Also, who doesn't love the idea of a cacio e pepe party for a crowd? My only qualm is that knowing there was starch added in the sauce, my perception of the dish's mouthfeel was definitely skewed, but that wasn't the case for my husband. As a proud Roman home cook, my pursuit of a perfect classic cacio e pepe will be a life-long experiment, but the scientifically optimized recipe exceeded my expectations and would be a good initiation for home cooks who have been put off by the dish's treachery thus far. But what exactly makes the traditional way of making this dish, by emulsifying the cheese with pasta cooking water, so challenging? It's practically impossible to know just how much starch is naturally present in the pasta cooking water, so the success of the crucial emulsion is more of a gamble, but there are tricks to mitigate catastrophe. One, coming from Massari, is to use less water to boil the pasta. 'For cacio e pepe, I recommend using about 6 to 8 cups of water for 7 ounces of pasta, which translates to a ratio closer to 1 part pasta to 6–7 parts water by weight — significantly less than in traditional pasta cooking,' the chef said. A classic rule of thumb for cooking pasta, according to Massari, is to use about 1 quart of water for every 3½ ounces of pasta, and 2 teaspoons of salt. The researchers, who used an arbitrary 10-to-1 ratio of water to pasta in their experiments, also said that reducing that volume of water by two-thirds generally concentrated the natural pasta starch to a safe degree. Massari also recommends emulsifying the cheese and pasta water below 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit), which is in line with the new study's findings on temperature. 'I first create a cold cheese cream, using finely grated Pecorino and a small amount of the pasta's starchy cooking water, blending until smooth. Then, I toss the pasta off the heat with the cream and freshly cracked black pepper, adding extra water to adjust the texture,' Massari said. 'The result should be a silky, cohesive sauce that clings beautifully to every strand of pasta, not a broken or heavy coating.' 'The natural starch from properly handled pasta is more than sufficient to achieve a creamy, stable, and authentic sauce without compromising the nutritional integrity of the dish,' Massari added. Another chef's trick to buy you some time while attempting the recipe the traditional way is 'pasta regeneration' — which involves partially cooking the pasta for about 70% of its time, immediately shocking it in ice water to stop gelatinization and finishing it later before serving. 'This method preserves al dente texture while enhancing the final release of surface starch, which is crucial for stabilizing delicate emulsions,' Massari explained. The researchers said their scientifically optimized recipe has surged to meme status, online and offline. 'Some social media users were hypercritical about the recipe we proposed, despite it being used before in prestigious restaurants,' Di Terlizzi told CNN. 'Overall, I can say that excitement prevailed, especially in the scientific community,' he added. 'We won't say we invented the definitive method,' Di Terlizzi said, but this method will save you from ruining good, expensive and hard-to-source pecorino cheese. For the researchers, that's personal: 'We're in Germany. We have that shipped to us all the way from Italy. We can't just buy it at the store every day,' Di Terlizzi said. 'So, when the dish turns out badly, that bothers us.' A big pasta dinner celebrated the publication of the paper, with the researchers preparing at least 4 pounds of pasta for a crowd. 'We were on pins and needles because our diners all knew about the experiment — but it worked perfectly,' Busiello said. Bartolucci added, 'That was our trial by fire.' This is CNN's summary of the recipe presented in the study. You can find Pecorino Romano DOP — which stands for Protected Designation of Origin, a certification of a product's origin and quality assigned by the Italian government and the European Union — and tonnarelli pasta at Italian grocers and online specialty stores. Serves 2 Ingredients • Salt • 5 grams (2 teaspoons) cracked black peppercorns, plus more for serving • 5 grams (2 teaspoons) cornstarch or potato starch • 200 grams (1 ½ cups, firmly packed) pregrated Pecorino Romano DOP (such as Fulvi, Locatelli or Cello), plus more for serving • 300 grams (10.6 ounces) pasta, preferably tonnarelli (spaghetti or rigatoni also work well) Instructions 1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. 2. While the water comes to a boil, add peppercorns in a single layer to a dry pan over medium-low heat. Toast until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove pepper from heat immediately. 3. Make the starch gel. In a small saucepan, dissolve the cornstarch by whisking it into 50 grams (3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon) cold water. Heat the mixture gently over low heat until it thickens and turns nearly clear. Remove the starch gel from heat and whisk in 100 grams (6 ¾ tablespoons) water to cool. The mixture will return to a liquid state. 4. Make the pecorino cream. Add the starchy water, grated cheese and peppercorns to the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine until a smooth cream forms. 5. Cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente, reserving 237 milliliters (1 cup) of pasta water before draining. Drain the pasta and let cool for up to 1 minute. 6. Mix the pasta with the sauce, ensuring even coating, and adjust the consistency by gradually adding pasta water as needed. Keep the sauce slightly runny as it tends to thicken as it cools. If needed, the dish can withstand gentle reheating (up to 80 or 90 C, 176 to 194 F) to reach serving temperature. 7. Sprinkle with additional grated cheese and pepper and serve immediately. 'I recommend using high-quality spaghettoni pasta made from durum wheat semolina, bronze-extruded and slow-dried at low temperatures,' Massari told CNN. 'I prefer using Matt, a heritage durum wheat cultivated mainly in Puglia and Sicily.' You can find matt spaghettoni, Sarawak black peppercorns and Pecorino Romano DOP at online specialty stores. Serves 2 Ingredients • Sea salt, preferably coarse Sicilian sea salt • 5 grams (1 teaspoon) freshly cracked Sarawak black peppercorns, plus more for serving • 100 grams (1 cup, firmly packed) pregrated Pecorino Romano DOP (such as Fulvi, Locatelli or Cello), plus more for serving • 200 grams (7 ounces) spaghettoni, preferably matt durum wheat spaghettoni Directions 1. Bring 6 to 8 cups of lightly salted water to a boil in a large pot. Toast the black pepper in a dry pan over medium-low heat until fragrant. Remove pepper from heat immediately. 2. Cook the spaghettoni according to the package directions until slightly al dente, reserving 237 grams (1 cup) of cooking liquid while it's cooking. 3. While the pasta is cooking, prepare a cold emulsion by mixing grated Pecorino Romano with a small ladle of warm pasta water (ideally under 60 C, or 140 F) in a medium bowl until it forms a creamy base. 4. Drain the pasta slightly al dente, then transfer it to the pan with the pepper. 5. Toss the pasta with the Pecorino cream, gradually adjusting with more pasta water to create a glossy, smooth sauce that perfectly coats the noodles. Add more black pepper and cheese before serving. Serve immediately.
CNN
09-05-2025
- Science
- CNN
Did 8 physicists make the perfect cacio e pepe? I tested the research
Few things are as impressive to dinner party guests as a perfectly executed à la minute pasta dish. As a Roman-born foodie, I would argue that cacio e pepe, a Roman pasta recipe that is as delicious and simple as it is finicky, is a bold menu choice for the novice cook. The name says it all: pasta, cacio (cheese) and pepe (pepper). That's it. That's the recipe. 'There is no margin for error with just pasta, Pecorino Romano cheese, and black pepper,' Michele Casadei Massari, CEO and executive chef of Lucciola Italian Restaurant in Manhattan, told CNN via email. 'The main challenge lies in achieving a stable emulsion: If the cheese is overheated or the starch-water balance is wrong, the sauce will separate,' Massari said. When that happens, the pecorino forms a gloopy cheesy mess, sticking to everything but the noodles — sad and naked. So, how can one reliably avoid unpleasant dinnertime disasters? Either by practicing a lot — and inevitably making mistakes in the process, as I have — or by using science to guide the way. Eight Italian physicists collaborated to crack the code of a foolproof cacio e pepe recipe, studying the properties of cheese, starch and water at different temperatures to learn how to replicate a flawless dish every time. The study was published April 29 in the journal Physics of Fluids. The magic trick? Adding a precise amount of cornstarch relative to the overall quantity of cheese used, to keep the dreaded clumps at bay. When I first heard about the method, the Roman cuisine purist in me was skeptical. Too many times, I've read cheat sheets for the perfect carbonara dish in which the solution to perfect, non-scrambled-egg sauce is to add cream (please, do not do this). In the interest of objectivity, I had to test the recipe myself and talk to these fellow Italians behind the research. In a conversation in Italian, three of the study authors shared that the research came from their frustration for one too many cacio e pepe dishes gone wrong. Thanks to the group's familiarity with the concept of 'liquid-liquid phase separation,' they knew how to investigate the problem scientifically. 'At some point, the eight of us were all at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden (Germany), some as PhD students, some as postdocs,' said study coauthor Daniel Maria Busiello, a statistical physicist at Italy's University of Padova. At that time, 'something we'd often do was cooking Italian recipes, not just for Italians, but for others as well.' Making big batches of cacio e pepe to feed other hungry scientists turned out to be a near-impossible feat. 'There were problems with controlling the temperature of the sauce and of the noodles, causing these clumps,' Busiello said. 'I remember a time the dish came out inedible. Something clicked then,' said study coauthor Ivan Di Terlizzi, one of the group's top cooks, and a statistical physicist at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden. Di Terlizzi approached fellow researcher Giacomo Bartolucci, now a biophysicist at the University of Barcelona in Spain, with a working theory about possible commonalities between the behavior of cacio e pepe sauce and that of aqueous solutions of proteins inside cells. Bartolucci had focused on phase separation and the aggregation of proteins for his doctoral research. The scientists set out to understand whether the cheese and water in this recipe could be scientifically described as 'a system that undergoes phase separation at high temperatures,' in Busiello's words. 'We had a theoretical framework and a practical problem,' Busiello added. Innovating on traditional Italian recipes, even on solid scientific grounds, is a high-risk endeavor. Given the touchy subject, the study authors are of course all Italians, by design. 'If we have to piss off a bunch of people, at least let it be eight Italians who did it,' Di Terlizzi said. To investigate the behavior of cacio e pepe sauce under heat, the researchers conducted experiments recreating the cooking process in a controlled setup. 'We prepared small batches of sauce using precise amounts of cheese, starch, and water, and gradually heated them using a sous vide device to carefully control the temperature,' Di Terlizzi explained. 'At each stage, we took a small sample of the sauce, placed it in a petri dish and photographed it from above to observe how clumps formed. This allowed us to track how changes in temperature and ingredients affected the smoothness of the sauce.' The researchers found that the concentration of starch in the sauce is the key factor influencing its stability. If the proportion of starch falls below 1% of the total cheese weight, the cheese will enter what the authors call the 'Mozzarella phase' — in which clumps are inescapable and the dish is ruined — at lower temperatures. A 2% to 3% starch-to-cheese ratio yields the best results. In the recipe for two published in the study, the researchers used 5 grams (0.18 ounce) of cornstarch or potato starch dissolved in water, heated up gently to form a gel, then cooled down with more water before being blended with 200 grams (7 ounces) of pecorino cheese. Sodium citrate, a common additive used to make smooth mac and cheese, also worked well in their recipe, although according to Di Terlizzi it lent the dish a slightly 'cheese single' aftertaste. The scientifically engineered pecorino cream can withstand temperature changes better than the classic cheese-starchy water mixture made with pasta cooking water and can even be reheated. Temperature is in fact another key factor that can make or break the sauce, which has to do with how the proteins in the cheese behave when heated. 'The sauce is stable if created at low temperatures and the starch bonded with the proteins. If, after that happens, you expose the sauce to high temperatures, proteins can no longer interact,' Di Terlizzi said. If the emulsion of cheese and starch happens at high temperatures though, 'there's no guarantee that proteins will bond with other proteins, which causes the aggregation, before they bond with the starch.' The scientifically optimized recipe will yield solid results for large batches of pasta, as the stable sauce will give you more flexibility dealing with a large volume of piping hot noodles, cooling down more slowly than a smaller batch of pasta would. When trying the scientifically optimized recipe, don't throw away all the pasta cooking water! You'll still need some of it in the final mixing of all ingredients (the 'mantecatura' in Italian). Just be careful to let it cool down slightly. When I tested the recipe, the instructions felt straightforward, and the process was quick, though it required a few more steps than what I'm used to (such as forming the starch gel on the stove). It was frankly odd to work with a pecorino cream that felt so smooth — it almost reminded me of a jarred sauce. Nothing changes as far as the pepper goes. Just crack as much of it as you'd like and toast it in a pan to release its aroma. My husband and I enjoyed the dish. It tasted great, and dealing with a pecorino cream that needs much less babying at the stove and allows for a much less time-sensitive mantecatura is a definite plus. Also, who doesn't love the idea of a cacio e pepe party for a crowd? My only qualm is that knowing there was starch added in the sauce, my perception of the dish's mouthfeel was definitely skewed, but that wasn't the case for my husband. As a proud Roman home cook, my pursuit of a perfect classic cacio e pepe will be a life-long experiment, but the scientifically optimized recipe exceeded my expectations and would be a good initiation for home cooks who have been put off by the dish's treachery thus far. But what exactly makes the traditional way of making this dish, by emulsifying the cheese with pasta cooking water, so challenging? It's practically impossible to know just how much starch is naturally present in the pasta cooking water, so the success of the crucial emulsion is more of a gamble, but there are tricks to mitigate catastrophe. One, coming from Massari, is to use less water to boil the pasta. 'For cacio e pepe, I recommend using about 6 to 8 cups of water for 7 ounces of pasta, which translates to a ratio closer to 1 part pasta to 6–7 parts water by weight — significantly less than in traditional pasta cooking,' the chef said. A classic rule of thumb for cooking pasta, according to Massari, is to use about 1 quart of water for every 3½ ounces of pasta, and 2 teaspoons of salt. The researchers, who used an arbitrary 10-to-1 ratio of water to pasta in their experiments, also said that reducing that volume of water by two-thirds generally concentrated the natural pasta starch to a safe degree. Massari also recommends emulsifying the cheese and pasta water below 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit), which is in line with the new study's findings on temperature. 'I first create a cold cheese cream, using finely grated Pecorino and a small amount of the pasta's starchy cooking water, blending until smooth. Then, I toss the pasta off the heat with the cream and freshly cracked black pepper, adding extra water to adjust the texture,' Massari said. 'The result should be a silky, cohesive sauce that clings beautifully to every strand of pasta, not a broken or heavy coating.' 'The natural starch from properly handled pasta is more than sufficient to achieve a creamy, stable, and authentic sauce without compromising the nutritional integrity of the dish,' Massari added. Another chef's trick to buy you some time while attempting the recipe the traditional way is 'pasta regeneration' — which involves partially cooking the pasta for about 70% of its time, immediately shocking it in ice water to stop gelatinization and finishing it later before serving. 'This method preserves al dente texture while enhancing the final release of surface starch, which is crucial for stabilizing delicate emulsions,' Massari explained. The researchers said their scientifically optimized recipe has surged to meme status, online and offline. 'Some social media users were hypercritical about the recipe we proposed, despite it being used before in prestigious restaurants,' Di Terlizzi told CNN. 'Overall, I can say that excitement prevailed, especially in the scientific community,' he added. 'We won't say we invented the definitive method,' Di Terlizzi said, but this method will save you from ruining good, expensive and hard-to-source pecorino cheese. For the researchers, that's personal: 'We're in Germany. We have that shipped to us all the way from Italy. We can't just buy it at the store every day,' Di Terlizzi said. 'So, when the dish turns out badly, that bothers us.' A big pasta dinner celebrated the publication of the paper, with the researchers preparing at least 4 pounds of pasta for a crowd. 'We were on pins and needles because our diners all knew about the experiment — but it worked perfectly,' Busiello said. Bartolucci added, 'That was our trial by fire.' This is CNN's summary of the recipe presented in the study. You can find Pecorino Romano DOP — which stands for Protected Designation of Origin, a certification of a product's origin and quality assigned by the Italian government and the European Union — and tonnarelli pasta at Italian grocers and online specialty stores. Serves 2 Ingredients • Salt • 5 grams (2 teaspoons) cracked black peppercorns, plus more for serving • 5 grams (2 teaspoons) cornstarch or potato starch • 200 grams (1 ½ cups, firmly packed) pregrated Pecorino Romano DOP (such as Fulvi, Locatelli or Cello), plus more for serving • 300 grams (10.6 ounces) pasta, preferably tonnarelli (spaghetti or rigatoni also work well) Instructions 1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. 2. While the water comes to a boil, add peppercorns in a single layer to a dry pan over medium-low heat. Toast until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove pepper from heat immediately. 3. Make the starch gel. In a small saucepan, dissolve the cornstarch by whisking it into 50 grams (3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon) cold water. Heat the mixture gently over low heat until it thickens and turns nearly clear. Remove the starch gel from heat and whisk in 100 grams (6 ¾ tablespoons) water to cool. The mixture will return to a liquid state. 4. Make the pecorino cream. Add the starchy water, grated cheese and peppercorns to the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine until a smooth cream forms. 5. Cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente, reserving 237 milliliters (1 cup) of pasta water before draining. Drain the pasta and let cool for up to 1 minute. 6. Mix the pasta with the sauce, ensuring even coating, and adjust the consistency by gradually adding pasta water as needed. Keep the sauce slightly runny as it tends to thicken as it cools. If needed, the dish can withstand gentle reheating (up to 80 or 90 C, 176 to 194 F) to reach serving temperature. 7. Sprinkle with additional grated cheese and pepper and serve immediately. 'I recommend using high-quality spaghettoni pasta made from durum wheat semolina, bronze-extruded and slow-dried at low temperatures,' Massari told CNN. 'I prefer using Matt, a heritage durum wheat cultivated mainly in Puglia and Sicily.' You can find matt spaghettoni, Sarawak black peppercorns and Pecorino Romano DOP at online specialty stores. Serves 2 Ingredients • Sea salt, preferably coarse Sicilian sea salt • 5 grams (1 teaspoon) freshly cracked Sarawak black peppercorns, plus more for serving • 100 grams (1 cup, firmly packed) pregrated Pecorino Romano DOP (such as Fulvi, Locatelli or Cello), plus more for serving • 200 grams (7 ounces) spaghettoni, preferably matt durum wheat spaghettoni Directions 1. Bring 6 to 8 cups of lightly salted water to a boil in a large pot. Toast the black pepper in a dry pan over medium-low heat until fragrant. Remove pepper from heat immediately. 2. Cook the spaghettoni according to the package directions until slightly al dente, reserving 237 grams (1 cup) of cooking liquid while it's cooking. 3. While the pasta is cooking, prepare a cold emulsion by mixing grated Pecorino Romano with a small ladle of warm pasta water (ideally under 60 C, or 140 F) in a medium bowl until it forms a creamy base. 4. Drain the pasta slightly al dente, then transfer it to the pan with the pepper. 5. Toss the pasta with the Pecorino cream, gradually adjusting with more pasta water to create a glossy, smooth sauce that perfectly coats the noodles. Add more black pepper and cheese before serving. Serve immediately.
CNN
09-05-2025
- Science
- CNN
Did 8 physicists make the perfect cacio e pepe? I tested the research
Few things are as impressive to dinner party guests as a perfectly executed à la minute pasta dish. As a Roman-born foodie, I would argue that cacio e pepe, a Roman pasta recipe that is as delicious and simple as it is finicky, is a bold menu choice for the novice cook. The name says it all: pasta, cacio (cheese) and pepe (pepper). That's it. That's the recipe. 'There is no margin for error with just pasta, Pecorino Romano cheese, and black pepper,' Michele Casadei Massari, CEO and executive chef of Lucciola Italian Restaurant in Manhattan, told CNN via email. 'The main challenge lies in achieving a stable emulsion: If the cheese is overheated or the starch-water balance is wrong, the sauce will separate,' Massari said. When that happens, the pecorino forms a gloopy cheesy mess, sticking to everything but the noodles — sad and naked. So, how can one reliably avoid unpleasant dinnertime disasters? Either by practicing a lot — and inevitably making mistakes in the process, as I have — or by using science to guide the way. Eight Italian physicists collaborated to crack the code of a foolproof cacio e pepe recipe, studying the properties of cheese, starch and water at different temperatures to learn how to replicate a flawless dish every time. The study was published April 29 in the journal Physics of Fluids. The magic trick? Adding a precise amount of cornstarch relative to the overall quantity of cheese used, to keep the dreaded clumps at bay. When I first heard about the method, the Roman cuisine purist in me was skeptical. Too many times, I've read cheat sheets for the perfect carbonara dish in which the solution to perfect, non-scrambled-egg sauce is to add cream (please, do not do this). In the interest of objectivity, I had to test the recipe myself and talk to these fellow Italians behind the research. In a conversation in Italian, three of the study authors shared that the research came from their frustration for one too many cacio e pepe dishes gone wrong. Thanks to the group's familiarity with the concept of 'liquid-liquid phase separation,' they knew how to investigate the problem scientifically. 'At some point, the eight of us were all at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden (Germany), some as PhD students, some as postdocs,' said study coauthor Daniel Maria Busiello, a statistical physicist at Italy's University of Padova. At that time, 'something we'd often do was cooking Italian recipes, not just for Italians, but for others as well.' Making big batches of cacio e pepe to feed other hungry scientists turned out to be a near-impossible feat. 'There were problems with controlling the temperature of the sauce and of the noodles, causing these clumps,' Busiello said. 'I remember a time the dish came out inedible. Something clicked then,' said study coauthor Ivan Di Terlizzi, one of the group's top cooks, and a statistical physicist at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden. Di Terlizzi approached fellow researcher Giacomo Bartolucci, now a biophysicist at the University of Barcelona in Spain, with a working theory about possible commonalities between the behavior of cacio e pepe sauce and that of aqueous solutions of proteins inside cells. Bartolucci had focused on phase separation and the aggregation of proteins for his doctoral research. The scientists set out to understand whether the cheese and water in this recipe could be scientifically described as 'a system that undergoes phase separation at high temperatures,' in Busiello's words. 'We had a theoretical framework and a practical problem,' Busiello added. Innovating on traditional Italian recipes, even on solid scientific grounds, is a high-risk endeavor. Given the touchy subject, the study authors are of course all Italians, by design. 'If we have to piss off a bunch of people, at least let it be eight Italians who did it,' Di Terlizzi said. To investigate the behavior of cacio e pepe sauce under heat, the researchers conducted experiments recreating the cooking process in a controlled setup. 'We prepared small batches of sauce using precise amounts of cheese, starch, and water, and gradually heated them using a sous vide device to carefully control the temperature,' Di Terlizzi explained. 'At each stage, we took a small sample of the sauce, placed it in a petri dish and photographed it from above to observe how clumps formed. This allowed us to track how changes in temperature and ingredients affected the smoothness of the sauce.' The researchers found that the concentration of starch in the sauce is the key factor influencing its stability. If the proportion of starch falls below 1% of the total cheese weight, the cheese will enter what the authors call the 'Mozzarella phase' — in which clumps are inescapable and the dish is ruined — at lower temperatures. A 2% to 3% starch-to-cheese ratio yields the best results. In the recipe for two published in the study, the researchers used 5 grams (0.18 ounce) of cornstarch or potato starch dissolved in water, heated up gently to form a gel, then cooled down with more water before being blended with 200 grams (7 ounces) of pecorino cheese. Sodium citrate, a common additive used to make smooth mac and cheese, also worked well in their recipe, although according to Di Terlizzi it lent the dish a slightly 'cheese single' aftertaste. The scientifically engineered pecorino cream can withstand temperature changes better than the classic cheese-starchy water mixture made with pasta cooking water and can even be reheated. Temperature is in fact another key factor that can make or break the sauce, which has to do with how the proteins in the cheese behave when heated. 'The sauce is stable if created at low temperatures and the starch bonded with the proteins. If, after that happens, you expose the sauce to high temperatures, proteins can no longer interact,' Di Terlizzi said. If the emulsion of cheese and starch happens at high temperatures though, 'there's no guarantee that proteins will bond with other proteins, which causes the aggregation, before they bond with the starch.' The scientifically optimized recipe will yield solid results for large batches of pasta, as the stable sauce will give you more flexibility dealing with a large volume of piping hot noodles, cooling down more slowly than a smaller batch of pasta would. When trying the scientifically optimized recipe, don't throw away all the pasta cooking water! You'll still need some of it in the final mixing of all ingredients (the 'mantecatura' in Italian). Just be careful to let it cool down slightly. When I tested the recipe, the instructions felt straightforward, and the process was quick, though it required a few more steps than what I'm used to (such as forming the starch gel on the stove). It was frankly odd to work with a pecorino cream that felt so smooth — it almost reminded me of a jarred sauce. Nothing changes as far as the pepper goes. Just crack as much of it as you'd like and toast it in a pan to release its aroma. My husband and I enjoyed the dish. It tasted great, and dealing with a pecorino cream that needs much less babying at the stove and allows for a much less time-sensitive mantecatura is a definite plus. Also, who doesn't love the idea of a cacio e pepe party for a crowd? My only qualm is that knowing there was starch added in the sauce, my perception of the dish's mouthfeel was definitely skewed, but that wasn't the case for my husband. As a proud Roman home cook, my pursuit of a perfect classic cacio e pepe will be a life-long experiment, but the scientifically optimized recipe exceeded my expectations and would be a good initiation for home cooks who have been put off by the dish's treachery thus far. But what exactly makes the traditional way of making this dish, by emulsifying the cheese with pasta cooking water, so challenging? It's practically impossible to know just how much starch is naturally present in the pasta cooking water, so the success of the crucial emulsion is more of a gamble, but there are tricks to mitigate catastrophe. One, coming from Massari, is to use less water to boil the pasta. 'For cacio e pepe, I recommend using about 6 to 8 cups of water for 7 ounces of pasta, which translates to a ratio closer to 1 part pasta to 6–7 parts water by weight — significantly less than in traditional pasta cooking,' the chef said. A classic rule of thumb for cooking pasta, according to Massari, is to use about 1 quart of water for every 3½ ounces of pasta, and 2 teaspoons of salt. The researchers, who used an arbitrary 10-to-1 ratio of water to pasta in their experiments, also said that reducing that volume of water by two-thirds generally concentrated the natural pasta starch to a safe degree. Massari also recommends emulsifying the cheese and pasta water below 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit), which is in line with the new study's findings on temperature. 'I first create a cold cheese cream, using finely grated Pecorino and a small amount of the pasta's starchy cooking water, blending until smooth. Then, I toss the pasta off the heat with the cream and freshly cracked black pepper, adding extra water to adjust the texture,' Massari said. 'The result should be a silky, cohesive sauce that clings beautifully to every strand of pasta, not a broken or heavy coating.' 'The natural starch from properly handled pasta is more than sufficient to achieve a creamy, stable, and authentic sauce without compromising the nutritional integrity of the dish,' Massari added. Another chef's trick to buy you some time while attempting the recipe the traditional way is 'pasta regeneration' — which involves partially cooking the pasta for about 70% of its time, immediately shocking it in ice water to stop gelatinization and finishing it later before serving. 'This method preserves al dente texture while enhancing the final release of surface starch, which is crucial for stabilizing delicate emulsions,' Massari explained. The researchers said their scientifically optimized recipe has surged to meme status, online and offline. 'Some social media users were hypercritical about the recipe we proposed, despite it being used before in prestigious restaurants,' Di Terlizzi told CNN. 'Overall, I can say that excitement prevailed, especially in the scientific community,' he added. 'We won't say we invented the definitive method,' Di Terlizzi said, but this method will save you from ruining good, expensive and hard-to-source pecorino cheese. For the researchers, that's personal: 'We're in Germany. We have that shipped to us all the way from Italy. We can't just buy it at the store every day,' Di Terlizzi said. 'So, when the dish turns out badly, that bothers us.' A big pasta dinner celebrated the publication of the paper, with the researchers preparing at least 4 pounds of pasta for a crowd. 'We were on pins and needles because our diners all knew about the experiment — but it worked perfectly,' Busiello said. Bartolucci added, 'That was our trial by fire.' This is CNN's summary of the recipe presented in the study. You can find Pecorino Romano DOP — which stands for Protected Designation of Origin, a certification of a product's origin and quality assigned by the Italian government and the European Union — and tonnarelli pasta at Italian grocers and online specialty stores. Serves 2 Ingredients • Salt • 5 grams (2 teaspoons) cracked black peppercorns, plus more for serving • 5 grams (2 teaspoons) cornstarch or potato starch • 200 grams (1 ½ cups, firmly packed) pregrated Pecorino Romano DOP (such as Fulvi, Locatelli or Cello), plus more for serving • 300 grams (10.6 ounces) pasta, preferably tonnarelli (spaghetti or rigatoni also work well) Instructions 1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. 2. While the water comes to a boil, add peppercorns in a single layer to a dry pan over medium-low heat. Toast until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove pepper from heat immediately. 3. Make the starch gel. In a small saucepan, dissolve the cornstarch by whisking it into 50 grams (3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon) cold water. Heat the mixture gently over low heat until it thickens and turns nearly clear. Remove the starch gel from heat and whisk in 100 grams (6 ¾ tablespoons) water to cool. The mixture will return to a liquid state. 4. Make the pecorino cream. Add the starchy water, grated cheese and peppercorns to the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine until a smooth cream forms. 5. Cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente, reserving 237 milliliters (1 cup) of pasta water before draining. Drain the pasta and let cool for up to 1 minute. 6. Mix the pasta with the sauce, ensuring even coating, and adjust the consistency by gradually adding pasta water as needed. Keep the sauce slightly runny as it tends to thicken as it cools. If needed, the dish can withstand gentle reheating (up to 80 or 90 C, 176 to 194 F) to reach serving temperature. 7. Sprinkle with additional grated cheese and pepper and serve immediately. 'I recommend using high-quality spaghettoni pasta made from durum wheat semolina, bronze-extruded and slow-dried at low temperatures,' Massari told CNN. 'I prefer using Matt, a heritage durum wheat cultivated mainly in Puglia and Sicily.' You can find matt spaghettoni, Sarawak black peppercorns and Pecorino Romano DOP at online specialty stores. Serves 2 Ingredients • Sea salt, preferably coarse Sicilian sea salt • 5 grams (1 teaspoon) freshly cracked Sarawak black peppercorns, plus more for serving • 100 grams (1 cup, firmly packed) pregrated Pecorino Romano DOP (such as Fulvi, Locatelli or Cello), plus more for serving • 200 grams (7 ounces) spaghettoni, preferably matt durum wheat spaghettoni Directions 1. Bring 6 to 8 cups of lightly salted water to a boil in a large pot. Toast the black pepper in a dry pan over medium-low heat until fragrant. Remove pepper from heat immediately. 2. Cook the spaghettoni according to the package directions until slightly al dente, reserving 237 grams (1 cup) of cooking liquid while it's cooking. 3. While the pasta is cooking, prepare a cold emulsion by mixing grated Pecorino Romano with a small ladle of warm pasta water (ideally under 60 C, or 140 F) in a medium bowl until it forms a creamy base. 4. Drain the pasta slightly al dente, then transfer it to the pan with the pepper. 5. Toss the pasta with the Pecorino cream, gradually adjusting with more pasta water to create a glossy, smooth sauce that perfectly coats the noodles. Add more black pepper and cheese before serving. Serve immediately.
South China Morning Post
07-05-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
A no-lumps pasta sauce? Italian physicists have recipe for cheesy Roman dish cacio e pepe
How do you mix cheese and hot water without making it lumpy? This is the question for anyone who has ever tried to make the popular dish cacio e pepe, which consists of pasta, the Italian hard cheese pecorino and pepper. Advertisement Physicists have now taken on the challenge of solving this culinary puzzle and sharing it with pasta enthusiasts around the world. In the journal Physics of Fluids, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, the University of Padua and other institutions report their findings – and provide what they consider to be a 'foolproof recipe'. Normally, fatty substances like cheese do not mix well with water, which is why starch is an important binding agent. Through tests, the research team discovered that two to three per cent of starch relative to the amount of cheese is optimal for a creamy, uniform sauce. Pecorino is a hard cheese made from sheep's milk that is made in various regions of Italy. Photo: Shutterstock Lower than 1 per cent and the risk of lumps is too high, while more than 4 per cent makes the sauce stiff and unappetising. Advertisement Heat is also crucial: the sauce cannot tolerate much of it. Excessive temperatures destroy the proteins in the cheese, causing it to form lumps – a process the researchers refer to as the undesirable 'mozzarella phase'.
