Italians have reacted with fury after the popular UK Good Food website published a recipe for a traditional Roman dish that did not include the correct original ingredients and appeared to belittle it as a quick eat.
Pasta cacio e pepe is a beloved Roman dish, renowned for being simple yet surprisingly challenging to make – so Good Food’s description of it as something that can be quickly whipped up for “a speedy lunch” irritated many.
The recipe also listed four ingredients – spaghetti, black pepper, parmesan and butter and suggested double cream as an option – when there should only be three: spaghetti, black pepper and pecorino cheese.
Such was the outrage that an association representing restaurants in Italy took the issue up with the British embassy in Rome.
Fiepet Confesercenti said it was “astonished” to see the recipe on such an esteemed British food site, which was owned by the BBC until 2024. Its president Claudio Pica said letters had been sent to Immediate Media, the site’s owner, and UK ambassador Edward Llewellyn.
Mr Pica said: “This iconic dish, traditionally from Rome and the Lazio region, has been a staple of Italian cuisine for years, so much so it has been replicated even beyond Italy’s borders.”
He regretted contradicting the British site, but clarified that “the original recipe for cacio e pepe excludes parmesan and butter. There are not four ingredients, but three: pasta, pepper and pecorino”.
The furore has been widely covered in Italian media, with a journalist at public broadcaster RAI saying: “We are always told, you are not as good as the BBC… and then they go and do this. Such a grave mistake. The suggestion of adding some cream gave me goosebumps.”
The Good Food food brand was owned by BBC Studios (the BBC’s commercial wing) until 2018, when it was sold to Immediate Media Co – with the BBC prefix being dropped from its name last year.
While some chefs may experiment with the dish, the main concern is that the website misled readers by presenting its version as the original.
Italians often mock foreigners for their interpretation of their recipes, but the indignation in this case is about something deeper: tampering with tradition.
Maurizio and Loredana run a hotel in central Rome – it’s been in their family for four generations.
“You can do all the variations in the world – but you cannot use the original Italian name for them, said Maurizio. “You cannot say it is cacio e pepe if you put butter, oil and cream in it. Then it becomes something else.”
He added: “You have to yield to Caesar that which is Caesar’s!”
Giorgio Eramo runs a fresh pasta restaurant near St Peter’s square – serving up cacio e pepe and other traditional pasta dishes.
“It’s terrible. It’s not cacio e pepe… What Good Food published, with butter and parmesan, is called ‘pasta Alfredo’. It’s another kind of pasta,” he said.
On his restaurant’s board of pastas, he offers cacio e pepe with lime – a variation. But he says that’s ok.
“It’s different, it’s for the summer, to make the pasta fresher. But it doesn’t impact the tradition. It’s not like cream or butter. Lime is just a small change.”
Nicola, who runs a sandwich shop near the Vatican, took particular issue with the inclusion of cream.
“Cacio e pepe should not be made with cream; cream is for desserts. For heaven’s sake. Whoever uses cream does not know what cooking means.”
Italians often get angry when foreigners tinker with their food recipes – pizza with pineapple, cappuccino after midday or carbonara with cream, for example.
Eleonora, who works at a busy cafe in central Rome, thinks it is probably not necessary for Italians to get so angry about something like this, but understands why they do.
“Our tradition is based on food. So if you touch the only thing that we have, in all over the world… that can make us feel a bit sad.”
Good Food owners Immediate Media has been approached for comment.
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