Why Some Chefs Salt the Pasta Water Less for Pecorino

Compare carbonara and cacio e pepe recipes and the cheese called for varies: “Pecorino Romano,” “Parmigiano Reggiano,” or simply “grated cheese.” This isn’t just a preference in wording — the cheeses are made from different raw milk entirely. Pecorino is a family name for sheep’s-milk cheeses, and Pecorino Romano, the one called for in Roman recipes, carries DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) status and delivers a strong, salty, savory hit. Parmigiano is a DOP cow’s-milk cheese with milder salt than Pecorino and a somewhat different quality of umami. Rome’s four classic pastas (carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana, and gricia) technically call for Pecorino, but in practice many Japanese recipes swap in Parmigiano or generic grated cheese instead.

Chefs leaning toward authentic Roman style clearly favor Pecorino. Vincenzo’s Plate whisks 90g of Pecorino into the egg mixture for carbonara and states a personal rule of at least 30g per 100g of pasta. For cacio e pepe the channel is just as consistent, making a “Pecorino paste” and melting it with steam. J. Kenji López-Alt (Chief Culinary Advisor at Serious Eats, with videos on his own channel) uses 55g of Pecorino alone plus 30g of unsalted butter for cacio e pepe (per the ingredient list in the official Serious Eats recipe; the direct link is currently bot-blocked, so this was confirmed on the Wayback Machine copy). Pasta Grammar uses equal parts Pecorino and Parmigiano, 30g each, taking the pan off the heat and letting it cool for three minutes before adding the cheese gradually.

Because Pecorino carries strong salt, it can easily stack with the salt concentration of your pasta water or other salty elements in the dish — worth watching closely. In a dish like cacio e pepe, where the only components are cheese and pepper, schools of thought split on how to handle the pasta water’s salt. Vincenzo’s Plate, in its 2026 version, leaves the boiling water unsalted and lets the Pecorino carry all the salt; Kenji López-Alt likewise keeps salt to a pinch. Pasta Grammar goes the opposite direction, calling for “plenty of salt.” Deciding on the cheese brand first, then adjusting the salt-per-water-volume ratio to match its saltiness, keeps the overall flavor design from drifting. Parmigiano and generic grated cheese carry milder salt, so in many cases a standard salt concentration in the boiling water works fine.

Both Pecorino and Parmigiano are hard cheeses, and their proteins tend to clump when heated (Pasta Grammar and Serious Eats both describe the failure mode as clumping). That’s why so many schools of cacio e pepe take the pan off the heat before mixing in cheese: Italia Squisita’s featured recipe from Claudio Gargioli (of Rome’s Armando al Pantheon) explains the original method as mantecare done “sempre a fuoco spento” — always with the heat off. Another factor at play is how finely the cheese is grated. Kenji López-Alt is reported to grate Pecorino with a microplane (a fine-toothed grater); compared to a coarser grater, this increases surface area and helps the cheese dissolve more readily into the pasta water. We cover grating tools in more depth in Cheese Graters vs. Microplanes.

It helps to think of this in three layers: Pecorino for sheep’s milk, strong saltiness, and an authentic Roman style; Parmigiano for cow’s milk, milder saltiness, and Japan’s home-style recipes; and generic grated cheese for a brand left unspecified more often than not. Because the saltiness differs so much between them, the safer approach is to settle on the cheese brand first, then adjust the boiling water’s salt concentration to match. Some schools mix both cheeses together, so start by reading through the Carbonara or Cacio e Pepe comparison pages and compare how each chef specifies cheese and saltiness. Our thinking on salting the pasta water is laid out in There Is No Single Right Salt Concentration for Pasta.