More Delicious, Creamy Pasta Recipes To Try
5 Ingredient Creamy Cavatappi Pasta Recipe
This ultra quick pasta recipe celebrates one of our very favorite pasta shapes: Cavatappi (pronounced kaa·vuh·taa·pee)! We dreamed of a simple, authentic, creamy sauce that would cling to the lovely, twisty, hollow corkscrew-shaped pasta that we love so much. We considered alfredo, but that buttery sauce forever belongs to Fettuccine Alfredo. We thought through all of our favorite pasta recipes and at last, authentic Italian cacio e pepe sauce — or at least our version of it — was the answer. If you’re looking for even more corkscrew fun, check out our Fusilli with Spicy Tomato Sauce, or for a deliciously creamy dish, try our classic Pasta Carbonara.
What is Cavatappi?
Cavatappi pasta is a pasta shape that originated in Southern Italy, and it definitely does have a resemblance to a corkscrew. It’s curly, tubular, springy and short—like a twisted, slightly longer penne pasta. DeLallo makes cavatappi with an exclusive blend of high quality durum wheat with a high gluten content, and the pasta is extruded from the pasta maker extra slowly to create a unique, wonderful texture. You’ll want to be sure to cook it to just al dente so that it has a tender but firm bite with a fleck of white at the center of the bitten pasta—that little fleck of white is what they call the pasta’s soul.
Ingredients to Make Our Creamy Cavatappi Pasta Recipe
Cavatappi pasta
Extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly-cracked black pepper (pepper is kind of the whole point of this creamy cavatappi recipe, but if you’re making it for little kids, go light on the pepper. We promise that it’s OK to be Italian recipe rule-breakers once in a while. After all the Italians love kids even more than they love food — they’d understand.)
Parmigiano-Reggiano (Grana Padano is a fine substitute, and is often less expensive)
Pecorino Romano (this one is a must for authentic cacio e pepe)
How To Make Creamy Cavatappi Pasta
Grate all that cheese. It might seem easy to ignore, but when we mention in the recipe that the cheeses should be “finely grated” we really do mean that. The texture and grain of the cheese really matters here, and the finer the better. It’ll determine how well it melts into the pasta cooking water and becomes a true creamy cacio e pepe sauce. The best way to prep them is to grab a microplane grater and grate the cheese into big snowy mounds yourself.
Salt the heck out of your pasta water. Because you’ll be using the pasta cooking water itself, don’t skip out on seasoning the water. When you’ve only got 5 ingredients, their each working hard.
Boil the pasta in a large stock pot just until it is al dente.
- Prepare the sauce. Warm the olive oil gently with the pepper, add some of the pasta water and bring to a simmer in a large skillet. Take it off the heat. Stir slowly but constantly as you add the pasta and the cheeses. If it is not sauce-ifying, continue adding the pasta cooking water a spoonful at a time, until it looks creamy.
How To Store Any Leftover Cavatappi + Tips
Leftovers you say? Creamy pasta like this doesn’t last long in our house, but if you do have leftovers it’s OK to keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days. However, this creamy cavatappi will be at its best when enjoyed right away. We don’t recommend freezing it.
What pasta is most similar to cavatappi? Curly and twisty, cavatappi is uniquely fun to eat and we really hope you can track it down. However, penne or rigatoni would make an OK substitute, as would any small, hollow pasta shape you have on hand.
Making a creamy pasta without cream does take a little self-confidence to pull off. Trust the process, and also trust your starchy pasta water. It seems like magic—making a creamy sauce without any butter or cream or milk—but that pasta cooking water is the source of this cacio e pepe recipe’s creaminess.
More Exciting Pasta Sauce Recipes To Mix Up Your Routine
Buon Appetito!
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