Cacio e Pepe simply means “cheese and pepper”—and for fans of this ancient Roman dish, there aren’t any other ingredients that combine better to form a creamy, decadent pasta. The history of cacio e pepe can be traced to sheepherders, who crafted hard cheese from sheep’s milk and carried it around with dried pasta and pepper. At meal time, they’d mix these simple ingredients together to create the hearty, cheesy sauce that we salivate over today.
If you’re taste-testing pastas in Rome, you could throw a stone and hit a trattoria that fires up this dish in all its glory. But if you’re in a major U.S. city like Los Angeles, it can be a little trickier to come across the real thing. A few chefs, both American and Italian, have brought this perfect pasta out into the open, however, and these five spots serve some of the best examples in the City of Angels.
Felix Trattoria
One of the progenitors of cacio e pepe in Los Angeles, chef Evan Funke had to give out free samples to patrons while cooking at Michelin-starred Rustic Canyon, just to introduce this perfetto pasta to the masses. Almost a decade later, Funke has his own restaurant, where patrons devour his cacio like it’s second nature. Though he uses butter in his recipe, you wouldn’t know it, as the silky strands of tonnarelli perfectly congeal with the Pecorino Romano DOP and tellicherry peppercorns that help transport you to the cobblestone streets of Trastevere. felixla.com
Felix's Cacio e Pepe
Forma Restaurant and Cheese Bar
Forma is probably the most underrated and overlooked restaurant in L.A. when it comes to cacio e pepe. Not only are its two locations among the best Italian spots in the city, but executive chef and owner Piero Topputo also serves his cacio version Dalla Forma – a process in which he mixes the steaming hot chitarra spaghetti inside a hollowed-out wheel of Pecorino Romano cheese (cover picture above). Originally from the small town of Gravina Di Puglia, Topputo credits his mother with teaching him everything he knows—and for that, grazie mille, Nonna Topputo. formarestaurant.com
Uovo
The owners of this casual pasta joint fittingly named it Uovo (Italian for egg) because they craft their goodies using a specific type of egg only found in Italy—and actually have their pastas handmade over in the homeland. In Bologna, their sfogline (pasta makers) use an old-school method of sheeting and cutting to form their elegant pastas, then ultimately ship everything to America. Once the products arrive stateside, swift-acting chefs churn the thick tonnarelli strands into dollops of Pecorino and black pepper for a mouth-watering concoction that won’t break the bank, or swallow up too much of your time. uovo.la
Sixth + Mill
Sixth + Mill is the brainchild of chef virtuoso Angelo Auriana and restaurateur Matteo Ferdinandi, who are slowly building an Italian restaurant empire right under our noses. The secret to their success is the mystery behind their highly-guarded recipes, which include the world’s best pesto (no exaggeration), and a perfect cacio e pepe made with al dente spaghetti alla chitarra noodles, DOP-designated parmigiano, Pecorino Romano, and a mélange of four types of pepper that—when combined—simply melts in your mouth. sixthandmill.com
Pizzana
Before he died, famed Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold called Pizzana’s cacio e pepe pizza “a small miracle: crisp crust, pungent cheese, and a showering of black pepper, a near-exact duplication of the flavor of the pasta’s particular tang even before your tongue hits a stripe of cream” He wasn’t wrong. Even though there are no noodles involved in this culinary phenomenon, chef Daniele Uditi does more with his cacio e pepe pizza—made with fresh fior di latte, smoked provoloncino di agerola, and parmigiano crema cheeses, cracked black pepper, and the chef’s famous “slow dough”—than just about every other pasta chef in the city. pizzana.com
Pizzana's Cacio e Pepe pizza pie