If You Love Pasta Carbonara, You Have to Try Naples' Signature Cacio e Uova

Carbonara and cacio e pepe are two of the most famous Italian pasta dishes, with both having roots in Roman cuisine. But some historians think both dishes have a common ancestor in Naples' cacio e uova.

Now, fettuccine Alfredo has had a stranglehold on American consumers dining in "Italian" chain restaurants for years. However, both Italians and Italian-Americans will tell you: Alfredo sauce isn't Italian. And really, what fettuccine Alfredo wishes it could be is cacio e uova — rich and cheesy, without being too heavy. Stemming from the blending of the Italian words for "cheese" and "egg," cacio e uova boasts a creamy, silky sauce that perfectly melds the best (and easiest!) parts of pasta carbonara and cacio e pepe. It blends cheese and egg, just like carbonara, to create an impossibly luxurious sauce without the hassle and time commitment of rendering the guanciale.

I grew up eating cacio e uova at my grandparents' house. It was something that could be quickly whipped up for lunch when my dad and I just happened to drop by. My mouth starts to water at the memory of my grandma spooning heaps of grated cheese into the eggs and whipping the mixture with a fork until a dreamy, cheesy paste formed. Cacio e uova is certainly complete as-is, but you can always top it with a few extra cracks of black pepper, a drizzle of Calabrian chili paste, or a handful of seasoned, toasted breadcrumbs to jazz it up.

Personally, my favorite addition is just a handful of parsley tossed in at the end. My grandma always made it this way, with Italian parsley snipped from a planter outside of the sliding glass door just off her kitchen — so this is the way I always make it and the way I've written the recipe here. The bright herbiness of the parsley cuts through the richness of the cheese and egg in such a complementary way, I can't imagine the dish without it.

So with just a handful of ingredients, including dried pasta, cacio e uova is the ultimate quick pantry meal that refuses to compromise in the creamy deliciousness department.

How to Make Cacio e Uova

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 2 large eggs
• 60 grams* Parmesan cheese, grated
• 60 grams* Pecorino-Romano cheese, grated
• Salt and (lots of) freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
• 8 ounces of small, tubular pasta (such as ditalini, tubetti, mezze rigatoni, or mini penne)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 cloves of garlic, smashed
• Small handful of fresh parsley, chopped

1. Set a large pot of heavily salted water on to boil. Use slightly less water than usual to make the water more concentrated with pasta starch; you need just enough to cover the pasta.

2. In a mixing bowl, thoroughly whisk together the eggs, both kinds of cheese, a pinch of salt, a generous amount of black pepper, and a splash of cold water.

3. Boil the pasta in the pot of salted water for 1 minute less than the package's recommendation for "al dente" noodles.

4. While the pasta cooks, melt the butter with the garlic cloves in a large skillet over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, allow the smashed garlic to sizzle for a few minutes in order to infuse flavor into the butter. Discard both cloves of garlic.

5. When the pasta has finished cooking, drain, reserving about 1 cup of pasta water. Toss the pasta in the pan with the garlic-infused butter.

6. Reduce heat to medium-low; pour in a couple of tablespoons of reserved pasta water and vigorously toss. Dollop in the egg and cheese mixture and continue mixing aggressively until a silky sauce comes together, adding in more pasta water as needed.

7. Turn off the heat and stir in your parsley. Taste and season accordingly; serve immediately.

*If you do not own a kitchen scale with a setting for grams, 60 grams of grated cheese converts to just slightly over 2 ounces or a scant ½ cup.

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