Is this the perfect way to make cacio e pepe?

Cacio e pepe can be a tricky dish to master. Do it right, and you are rewarded with a silky sauce for your pasta. Do it wrong, and you end up with clumps of rubbery cheese swimming in oil instead. There are many recipes that claim to be foolproof, but even those are prone to failure. However, scientists recently set out to develop the perfect technique, and it turns out that a simple pantry ingredient is the secret to success.

Late last year, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, the University of Barcelona, and the Institute of Science and Technology Austria came up with a report that showed the best way to make cacio e pepe according to science. They paid particular attention to the “phase behavior” of the sauce and played with varying the heat and proportion of the ingredients. The researchers concluded that two things were key: the temperature of the water and the concentration of starch in the water.

One takeaway is to make sure you let the pasta water cool slightly before adding the cheese: too hot and the cheese proteins can clump. The problem of starch concentration being variable can be fixed by using corn starch. The perfect amount of starch is a concentration of 2% to 3%. The scientists provide a recipe that will make the ratios hit the target every time – provided you use corn starch mixed with water at specific proportions rather than using the pasta water. If you don’t want it to go to waste, you can save the pasta water for bread making.