isithalal.food · Recipes

Cacio e pepe with checked cheese

Roman pepper-and-cheese pasta made with butter, toasted black pepper and a pecorino or Parmesan-style cheese with microbial, vegetable or Halal-certified rennet.

Italian · Main · Easy · 2 bowls · 15 min

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

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Why Halal checks matter here

The dish is almost all cheese, and Parmigiano-Reggiano's rules require calf rennet, while pecorino labels may also list animal rennet; scholars differ on rennet from animals not slaughtered the Halal way.

Halal-critical ingredients

• Pecorino or Parmesan: Parmigiano-Reggiano's production rules require calf rennet, and some pecorino labels list animal rennet. Scholars differ on rennet from animals not slaughtered the Halal way. Use a cheese that names microbial, vegetable or Halal-certified rennet, or one your school accepts. See Parmesan and Rennet.

Ingredients

Pasta

• 200 g (7 oz) bucatini or spaghetti
• to taste (to taste) salt, for the pasta water
• 25 g (2 tbsp) butter
• 1 tsp (1 tsp) ground black pepper, or 2 tsp whole peppercorns freshly ground
• 50 g (⅔ cup) pecorino or Parmesan-style cheese with microbial, vegetable or Halal-certified rennet, finely grated

Method

1. Cook the pasta. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 2 minutes less than the pack says.
2. Toast the pepper. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium frying pan over a low heat, add the black pepper and toast it for a few minutes.
3. Toss with pasta water. Drain the pasta, keeping 200 ml of the cooking water. Tip the pasta and 100 ml of the water into the pan with the butter and pepper and toss briefly.
4. Melt in the cheese. Scatter the cheese evenly over the pasta and don't stir: let it melt for 30 seconds, then toss everything well into a smooth, shiny sauce. This stops the cheese clumping. Add a splash more pasta water to loosen it if needed and serve straight away with more black pepper.

Allergens

gluten (pasta), milk (butter, cheese)

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Cacio e pepe' (bucatini or spaghetti cooked 2 minutes short, black pepper toasted in butter, the pasta tossed with pasta water, then the cheese scattered over and left to melt for 30 seconds before tossing into a glossy sauce). We specified a cheese with microbial, vegetable or Halal-certified rennet in place of its pecorino or Parmesan. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Photograph from our ingredient library: a bowl of cacio e pepe, not the finished dish.