Vegan Cacio e Pepe Recipe

How to make a vegan creamy and cheesy pasta that is very similar to Cacio e Pepe. The dairy free version of the classic Italian pasta dish. This Vegan Cacio e Pepe is a cheesy, creamy, peppery pasta dish and so delicious! It’s also quick, it will take around 15 minutes!

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WHAT IS THIS VEGAN CHEESY PASTA?

I’m Italian and pasta is my favourite dish, in all shapes and forms. I particularly love dishes from Rome! I recently visited Rome and it was the first time since becoming vegan. I got to try so many dishes of the traditional cuisine made vegan and I cannot describe how good they were! There’s one restaurant in particular, Il Rifugio Romano, that blew my mind. I have never had pasta that tasted that good. Best thing ever. I knew I had to recreate some classic dishes and here is the vegan Cacio e Pepe! This is my own version of vegan cacio e pepe and I hope you love it!

Traditional cacio e pepe is made with cacio, which is cheese, more specifically Pecorino Romano, pepper, pasta and boiling water. It’s super simple and the vegan version will include more steps since we need to recreate the taste of pecorino but we only need six ingredients. Cacio e pepe, which by the way you pronounce “ka·chow ee peh·peh”, is one of my favourites pasta ever. Let’s see how to make this dairy free pasta sauce.

INGREDIENTS AND SUBSTITUTIONS

• Pasta: the star of the show of course! You can use any type pasta for this recipe. I use long pasta to make it more similar to the traditional recipe, but any long or short pasta will work. I suggest using bronze cut pasta and it holds the sauce better!
• Chickpea flour: This will help making the sauce. The chickpea flour is scrambled and then blended to make the vegan pecorino cheese.
• Cashews: Cashews are high in fat and great for all types of pasta sauces. Here we blend them with the chickpea scramble to make the sauce creamy.
• Nutritional yeast: This is where the cheesy bit of the pasta comes from. Nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast which comes in yellow flakes and it has a strong nutty and cheese flavour and it;s used often as a cheese substitute.
• Miso paste: I think miso paste is essential is dishes that are meant to recreate a cheese taste and it gives it an umami and decadent taste.
• Black pepper: preferably freshly ground black pepper, but you can use normal black pepper.
• Water: To boil the pasta and make the sauce super creamy! I never throw away all the pasta water but always keep some aside for every pasta dish to add at the end. boil the pasta. What makes it great is that it contains starch from the pasta, that makes the sauce super creamy
• Salt: I use rock salt for the boiling water to cook the pasta and a pinch of salt (of any type) at the end.

Substitutions

• Chickpea flour can be substituted with any pulse flour
• Cashews can be substituted with nuts that are high in fats and can give a similar result, like macadamias, almonds and pine nuts.
• Miso paste can be substituted with 1 tsp of salt or 1/2 tbsp of tahini

HOW TO MAKE VEGAN CACIO E PEPE

• Make the batter: Combine chickpea flour with water.

• Scramble the batter: Heat up a little olive oil in a pan and pour the mixture on it. Wait a few minutes and when it starts to look cooked on the edges, proceed to scramble it. Cook until cooked, about 5 minutes.

• Make the pecorino: In a blender, add your cashews and blend them until they are chopped finely, until almost ground. Then add your chickpea flour mixture, nutritional yeast and miso paste and blend. The mixture might get stuck to the edges, simply pause the blender and scrape the mixture down with a spoon and blend again until the texture if like grated parmesan cheese. Our vegan pecorino is ready!

• Boil your pasta, I used tagliatelle but any pasta will work, although I prefer long pasta. Cook it al dente, according to the package instructions or if it’s not written, remove 1 minute from the total cooking time. When it’s ready keep some pasta water aside.
• Make the sauce: In a bowl add 3 tbsp of the mixture for every person and add some black pepper. Ideally you should toast black pepper corns on a pan with medium heat until you smell the aroma and then crush them into dust with a mortar. Although, ground pepper out of a pepper mill is completely fine. The whole mix makes about 4 portions. Then gradually add some tablespoons of pasta water and mix until the consistency is creamy and smooth.

• Combine everything: Toss the pasta in the sauce until it is well coated! Season with extra pepper.

FAQS

Is all pasta vegan?

Dried pasta is 100% vegan, it’s made of flour and water. Fresh pasta, most of the time contains eggs so avoid that. There are so types of fresh pasta that are vegan just make sure to check the ingredients!

Can I use another type of pasta?

You can use any type of pasta, long or short. I simply use long pasta to make it similar to the traditional recipe, even though the actual recipe is no where traditional because it’s vegan! So feel free to use whatever size and shape you prefer.

STORAGE

The leftovers will last in the fridge for a few days. When reheating, use a pot and add a splash of water to the pasta or boiling water to make it creamy again and reheat until warm. I don’t recommend freezing this pasta.

If you want to make this pasta for later, I suggest you stop at the pecorino step and keep that in the fridge and then use it when you boil your pasta, adding the fresh pasta water on the spot. In this way it will last longer, for about a week in the fridge!

MORE PASTA RECIPES

For some traditional Italian recipes veganised check out these!

• One Pot Pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans)
• Vegan courgette pasta
• Creamy roasted pepper pasta with cashews
• The ultimate lentil vegan bolognese

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?

Please let me know how it turned out! Leave a comment below, give it a rating or share your recreation on Instagram and tag me at  @recipesandplaces or use the hashtag #recipesandplaces

I love to see recreations and share them!

RECIPE