The Foolproof Secret To Creamy, Smooth Cacio E Pepe Every Time

Alongside carbonara, amatriciana, and gricia, cacio e pepe ranks as one of Rome's four beloved pastas. The name of this delicious pasta literally translates to "cheese and pepper" and makes good on those namesake ingredients. Unlike carbonara, however, cacio e pepe doesn't use any eggs, so emulsifying the sauce can prove challenging and require a few tricks. Enter cornstarch, a foolproof ingredient for bringing your cheese and pepper sauce together, no clumps necessary.

Cornstarch works "molte bene" in a classic Roman cacio e pepe because it seamlessly integrates your Pecorino Romano and prevents clumps from forming. When it comes time to make your sauce, you typically run the risk of your hot pasta water not quite mixing with your cheese, creating an inconsistent texture antithetical to Italy's smooth and silky cacio e pepe renditions. The addition of cornstarch, however, addresses this problem. It adheres to your other ingredients, replacing or upping the ante of starchy pasta water with the necessary amount of starch to bind the sauce together. It's a safety net that troubleshoots your cacio e pepe's emulsification before you're ever even confronted with that issue. 

As for how, exactly, to utilize cornstarch in your next cacio e pepe? You don't need a lot to see the effect, nor do you have to worry about its taste. 

Cheese and pepper may form the bulk of a cacio e pepe's sauce, but cornstarch has an equally important role to play, albeit in a much smaller quantity. When making your next cacio e pepe, you have a few options for how, exactly, to incorporate cornstarch into your sauce. However, most methods generally require stirring about a teaspoon or so of cornstarch into some water (about ¾ a teaspoon per serving), then heating that mixture before you add the grated Pecorino Romano cheese and pepper. Then, you'll also want to save some of your reserved, starch-heavy pasta water to mix into your sauce and thin out the cheese.

To cover your bases, follow a cacio e pepe recipe, but stick to the general order of ingredients. You'll likely need just a little bit of cornstarch for much larger portions of water, cheese, and even pepper. However, that small amount of cornstarch is enough to work wonders in finishing your sauce. Sure, the ingredient isn't typically included in authentically Italian recipes, but this trick is so effective we may have to start calling the dish: cacio e pepe e amido de mais.