I ate the most amazing caccio & pepe dish at a fabulous restaurant(trattoria)in the Prati neighborhood of Rome at a restaurant of the same name as the dish. I tried to re-create at home but didn't cut it. Anybody know how to get a result like this??? if so, help - I need authentic Roman knowledge. Try this place by the way, Gianni, the owner is a delight and is always there.

Ciao lindabell
Same here ! I ate fantastic Cacio e Pepe spaghetti near piazza Campo de Fiori - I am usually considered a good cook but when I tried to recreate those cacio e pepe here in the US they did not come out even close :-(
...since I am going to Italy if I remember I will try to investigate the secret - They must have some sort of secret because the 'commercial' recipes - I agree- do not cut it !

Hi Paolo,
Thanks - when are you going to rome?? I just returned from there for a month living in the Campo di Fiori area - there are lots of great restaurants in the fabulous location! My daughter is interning in ROme for the summer so I was able to really experience the city. Another dish I tried to make yesterday was suppli - the fried rice balls sold all over. They turned out ok but again, not exactly the same as I experienced. I love to cook and am considered pretty good, but recreating the amazing food there is a real challenge!

I had a rather disappointing version up at a place near Santa Maria Maggiore... the pasta was dry and a bit too toothy.

It's such a simple dish that I'd guess it's all about getting good ingredients. Youtube has a few videos available...

Il video e' interessante - Grazie
I will give it another shot soon. In any case I never seen olive oil in that container ... I am suspecting he has some other flavor in it ...

My Italian is not good enough to follow the conversation but it looks as if he uses 2 cheeses. I assumed that the oil was in the yellow squeeze bottle. If so, he uses it sparingly... mostly pasta water for moistness and LOTS of cheese!

We can buy pretty good ingredients at the Italian market here in Philadelphia but, of course, it is NEVER the same.

I hope someone can help the OP find a good approximation of the recipe... I love Italian food. ( ...and if I ate as much pasta as I would like I would get very, very fat!)

If you go to google and type in "cacio e pepe, youtube", you'll probably get 3-4 hits on people making this simple dish.
Keep in mind, in Italy, America, China, etc. recipes change and many people put their own twist on a recipe. (a modo suo != his/her way.

Haven't you ever heard the phrase, "My mother makes the best meatballs" of course if you grow up eating mamma's cooking, you think she makes them "the italian" way, and any variation is wrong and not italian. Really, all you learned from mamma is one person's cooking technique "a modo suo" that she probably learned from her mother.

OK, now that i'm venting (mi sto sfogando), as much as we think meatballs are a typical Italian dish, I could honestly say in the 2 years I lived in italy and all the times that my friends/relative from italy come to visit me, I never once ate them in itlay or remember them even being popular both in people's homes or in restaurants....They do exist though.

So back to my point, if you experienced "spaghetti al caccio e pepe" in one restaurant, it's very conceivable to find it prepared differenly in another restaurant...It's all in the style of cooking of the particular restaurant/home, etc.

just my .02

I always thought that meatballs were an American invention until I saw a discussion online about different regions in Italy and their interpretation of the meatball. In any event, I have NEVER seen them served with tomato sauce over pasta as is common in the North America.

The last time I was in Italy (Orvieto) I had a pasta with pesto dish for lunch that was amazing. Remember that in the U.S. pesto is always pine nuts + olive oil + parmesan + basil + garlic + salt/pepper. The dish I had used almonds and did not have either basil and pine nuts. It was amazingly good and I realized that my idea of "pesto" was very, very narrow. I assume that pesto must mean something like "to grind with a pestle and mortar" and I wonder how many different varieties of pesto there are in Italy.

Eternal:

I think you nailed it and proved a point, generally, about "catorgorizing" people, culture, and, in this case, La cucina.


ciao

thanks - very helpful and quite amusing how the Italians typically perform even the simplest task with great pomp and circumstance!!