Cacio E pepe with bacon. Italian Grandmothers please forgive this American boy for his sin against your traditions. I put bacon in your pasta, and I liked it.

Cacio E Pepe with bacon isn’t exactly traditional, but it is delicious. At it’s core, cacio e pepe is a simple recipe that celebrates good pasta with a little butter, pepper, and a lot of cheese. It’s comfort food, so why not add bacon? I don’t have a Nonna that would be disappointed by this slight divergence from the original, and I firmly believe that almost everything is better with bacon. So let’s dive into this recipe.

showing the ingredients for cacio e pepe with bacon

Cacio e Pepe with Bacon Ingredients

Bucatini

Bucatini pasta is similar to spaghetti, but thicker and with a hole running through the middle. It is fantastic, and in my opinion, one of the best long pasta noodles available. The texture from the hollow structure will blow your socks off, while acting as the perfect vessel for transporting sauce to mouth.

Parmigiano-Reggiano

Sometimes called the champagne of hard cheeses, parmigiano-reggiano is the real deal. Vigorously monitored aging processes ensure that when you buy true parminiano-reggiano you are getting top quality every time. I love the strong, sharp, rich flavor, however it does dome with a higher price tag. If you’re not up for shelling out for that quality, a good alternative would be parmesan. Not the kind on the shelves in the jar with the green lid, but freshly grated. Even Better, buy a small block, and grate your own. You’ll still end up with a very tasty pasta, just not quite as complex. Let’s be honest, we’re using bacon in this recipe, so parmesan may make more sense anyways!

Butter

This Cacio e Pepe doesn’t have a “sauce” per say, and instead uses butter and a little pasta water. The main role of the butter is to act as an emulsifier, and allow the cheese to to melt and coat the noodles. If you have high quality butter, you’ll certainly get more flavor and a silkier quality from it, but it’s not hugely important to use top notch stuff.

Black Pepper

A major element to the flavor profile of this dish, I highly recommend using fresh cracked black pepper. You’ll get much more punch out of a fresh grind, and the little textural bits are great as well.

Bacon Baby!

Ahh bacon, how I love it! A fantastic addition, and main attraction to many dishes. There are many varieties, and all carry slightly different flavor profiles. Surely any you use would be delicious, but keeping in the cacio e pepe spirit, I decided to go with peppered. You can often find this kind at the butcher counter and buy it by the slice. Four strips or so will do for this recipe, but why not buy a few extra to munch on!

How to Make Cacio e Pepe with Bacon.

Cook the Bacon

There are many ways to cook bacon, for this recipe however, the magic happens when you toss the pasta in the same pan used to cook the bacon. Needless to say, I recommend pan searing the bacon. Start with a cold pan, and lay out your strips of bacon. Heat over medium until bacon fat begins to render. From there, keep an eye on it, and flip every couple minutes to get even cooking on both sides. You’ll notice the bacon start to develop some nice color, as it begins curling up. Continue cooking until the fat is mostly rendered and bacon is crisp. Remove from the pan and set on a paper towel lined plate. Drain most of the grease from the pan, leaving about a tablespoon. Once bacon is cool enough to handle, roughly chop in to bits.

Cook the Pasta

Cook the pasta according to the label. For bucatini, usually that’s about 6-8 minutes stirring occasionally for a nice al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 2/3 cup pasta water. Transfer cooked pasta to the skillet used to cook the bacon over low heat.

Make the “Sauce”

Return the pan used to cook the bacon to low heat. Add the butter and pasta water, tossing together until butter starts melting. Throw in the cheese and black pepper, continuing to toss until cheese is melted forming your “sauce”. Add the pasta, and bacon bits, and toss to coat. Serve with additional grated cheese on top.

Cacio e Pepe with Bacon Recipe Tips

Doubling

This recipe is made for 2, but can easily be made for 4 by doubling all the ingredients. Just make sure to reserve double the bacon grease, and pasta water.

Pasta Substitutions

Bucatini is definitely the front runner here, but any long noodle will work. Spaghetti would be next in line, however you could also use angel hair, linguine etc..

finished bowl of cacio e pepe with bacon

Cacio E Pepe with Bacon Recipe