A Classic, Creamy Cavatappi Recipe
Cacio e pepe is a classic Italian pasta sauce recipe, if something with just three main ingredients—cheese, pepper and pasta—could be called a recipe. Cacio e pepe is most closely associated with Rome and the surrounding areas, where pecorino romano cheese reigns supreme. Most of all, this quick and easy pasta recipe celebrates one of our very favorite pasta shapes—cavatappi! We wanted a creamy sauce that would cling to the lovely, twisty, hollow corkscrews that we love so much, but that wouldn’t overpower. Something simple, that keeps the focus on the pasta! Cacio e pepe—or at least our version of it—was the answer!
What is Cavatappi?
Cavatappi pasta is a pasta shape that originated in Southern Italy, and it definitely does have a resemblance to a corkscrew. It’s curly, tubular, springy and short—like a twisted, slightly longer penne pasta. DeLallo makes cavatappi with an exclusive blend of high quality durum wheat with a high gluten content, and the pasta is extruded from the pasta maker extra slowly to create a unique, wonderful texture—one that’s just right for encouraging a sauce like cacio e pepe to cling to it! You’ll want to be sure to cook it to just al dente so that it has a tender but firm bite with a fleck of white at the center of the bitten pasta—that little fleck of white is what they call the pasta’s soul.
Everything You’ll Need to Make Our Cavatappi Cacio e Pepe
Pecorino Romano is the classic cheese for this, and we adore the combo of that salty Sheep’s cheese with Parmigiano (a cow’s milk cheese)—it’s absolute heaven. It might seem easy to ignore but when we mention in the recipe that the cheeses should be “finely grated” we really do mean that! The texture and grain of the cheese really matters here—it’ll determine how well it melts into the pasta cooking water and becomes a creamy sauce. The best way to prep them is to grab a microplane grater and grate the cheese into big snowy mounds yourself. Here’s everything you’ll need to make the greatest cavatappi cacio e pepe ever:
Kosher salt
Cavatappi
Extra-virgin olive oil
Black pepper
Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano
Pecorino Romano
Cacio e Pepe Is the Best Sauce for Cavatappi
Cavatappi noodles are delightful and go with lots of different pasta sauces, to be honest. And most people make cacio e pepe with long, thin pasta like spaghetti. But! We happen to think that it’s even more delicious on these twisty, twirly little tubes. Why do we love it so? Well, we’re so glad you asked! This recipe rocks because:
It’s kid-friendly! Sure, black pepper packs a punch, but if you’re making this yummy, creamy cavatappi recipe for little kids, just go a little light on the pepper. It’ll still be super yummy.
It’s quick! There’s some disagreement about the exact origins of Italian cacio e pepe sauce, but it probably dates back many hundreds of years.
It’s a little show off-y. Even though it only has a few ingredients, this classic Italian pasta sauce does take a little self-confidence to pull off. It seems like magic—making a creamy sauce without any butter or cream or milk—but the starchy pasta cooking water is the source of the creaminess and we swear, you can make a creamy pasta with just cooking water and cheese. Follow the recipe closely and have faith! It’ll happen.
Buon Appetito!
We hope you adore this recipe and that you love DeLallo cavatappi as much as we truly do! When you whip up this creamy cavatappi recipe, we want to see how it turns out! Share a photo and tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see your stuff! Happy eating!
