I have to admit, I was skeptical about Cacio e Pepe Pizza when I read about it. Not because I don’t like pizza, or pepper, because I don’t like cheese. I love both those things! But you know sometimes you just have that feeling that people are doing mash-ups for the sake of mash-ups? But I have never been so delighted to be proved wrong. Cacio e pepe pizza is a work of genius. It may even have become my new favorite pizza.
What Is Cacio e Pepe?
Cacio e pepe just means cheese and pepper. It’s a classic Roman pasta dish, in which some (okay, a LOT) of cheese, typically pecorino, is melted and emulsified into a creamy sauce. Rather than using cream, the consistency is achieved by adding some of the hot and starchy pasta cooking water to the grated cheese. Then the sauce is tossed together with the cooked pasta and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
This recipe takes the same concept, but instead of using pasta, we’re making that cheese and pepper mix as a pizza topping.
How to Make Cacio e Pepe Pizza
I read a complicated recipe about how to mimic the starchy pasta water by pouring water over the pizza dough before baking. I tried it and it was a disaster. If you do something like that and it work for you, please let me know! But I got far and away the best results by spreading a little cream on the pizza dough. Because the cheese is quite rich already, I used sour cream, to bring a little tang in there, and it worked great.
I also opted to use cheddar as well as pecorino in the mix. I wouldn’t do this with the pasta dish, but in the pizza, the cheddar melts more smoothly and made the
This recipe is assuming that you already have some pizza dough ready to go. You can buy it from the store or even better, make it yourself. If you’re looking, I’ve got a great homemade pizza dough recipe for you. (And another one for those who prefer whole grain.)
Once the oven is hot, with a metal tray or baking stone inside, the first step is to stretch or roll out the pizza dough into a large round, on a base of parchment paper.
Then spread over the sour cream, add generous handfuls of cheese and sprinkle over a large amount of freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and transfer the whole thing to the hot stone or tray in the oven. Bake until golden brown and crispy, slightly puffed and risen at the edges. If your oven is hot enough, it shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes.
Storing Cacio e Pepe Pizza
Let’s be honest, you’re probably not going to have any leftovers. Despite the high calorie count, people generally manage to put away an astonishing amount of this pizza! But should you have any left over, save it for breakfast the following day and serve it with a fried egg on top. Thank me later.
And More…
Looking for more Italian comfort food? Check out one of these:
- Focaccia Pizza
- Pink Sauce Pasta
- Chicken Eggplant Parmesan
- Homemade Beefaroni
- Creamy Tuscan Sausage Pasta
Conclusion
If you’re looking for the next hit pizza topping, you should definitely give this one a try. Even if you’re skeptical, like I was, Cacio e Pepe Pizza is a fusion food worth making yourself. Spicy with peppery heat, rich with cheese and with a deliciously crunchy crust, it might just become your favorite new pizza as well…
Cacio e Pepe Pizza
Ingredients
For the cacio y pepe pizza
- 1 unit pizza dough
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 cup cheddar grated
- 1 1/2 cups pecorino grated
- 2 tbsp black pepper coarsely ground
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven as hot as it goes. Place a baking steel or pizza stone inside to heat up.
- On a sheet of parchment paper, roll or stretch the pizza dough out to a diameter of about 12 inches.
- Smear with the sour cream, leaving a 1-inch border at the edges for the crust.
- Scatter over the cheddar, pecorino, and black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.
- Transfer the pizza to the hot baking steel in the oven. Bake for about 10 minutes until blistered, browned and delicious-smelling. Slice and serve hot.
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