Life is full of pasta-bilities, and ordering the cacio e pepe on a Tuesday night at ROC Restaurant proves it.
Pronounced “kaa-chee-ow ee pe-pay,” this three-ingredient Roman dish rose to popularity in the mid-2000s and has never looked back. Partly because the internet, namely Tik Tok, loves a minimalistic recipe — and cacio e pepe is just that, considering it translates directly to “cheese and pepper.”
Traditionally it’s made with Pecorino Romano cheese, black pepper, and tonnarelli pasta. And while you can mix-up your own version at home with little effort, you probably can’t prepare it in a flaming wheel of cheese. That’s where the ROC comes in — not the wrestler with raised eyebrow, but the Italian restaurant on Bardstown Road.
Every Tuesday night, this authentic Italian restaurant offers tableside cacio e pepe service from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Chef + owner Rocco Cadolini will wheel a cart to the table before setting a wheel of Pecorino Romano cheese — which retails for $149-$494 — on fire. Once the flames burn out, he swirls his house-made tonnarelli pasta around the melted cheese bowl and dishes it out.
Reservations are recommended for cacio e pepe show. So don’t delay, pasta la vista, baby.
