Cacio e pepe
Cheese + pepper.
Pecorino, pepper and cooking water. Starch and technique bind this restrained sauce.
Four dishes. One city full of character.
The four great pastas of Rome in Oropesa del Mar, Castellón
Amatriciana, gricia, cacio e pepe and carbonara.
We call them the holy quartet: four pasta dishes at the heart of Rome’s food identity. They share ingredients and technique, yet each has a character of its own. This guide helps you tell them apart before choosing your next plate.
Four names worth knowing.
A map of flavours, not a family tree. Ingredient relationships help explain the dishes, not prove when each was invented.
Gricia
Enter guanciale.
Guanciale, Pecorino and pepper, usually without tomato or egg. Bold and bound with cooking water.
Amatriciana
Rome wears red too.
Guanciale, tomato and Pecorino. Connected to Amatrice and embraced by Rome, with tomato transforming the sauce.
Carbonara
Egg yolk takes its turn.
Guanciale, Pecorino, egg and pepper. At BIGA, Italian egg yolk gives a rich sauce without cream.
One family of flavours, four paths.
Remembering cacio e pepe as the base, gricia with guanciale, amatriciana with tomato and carbonara with egg is a useful culinary comparison. It is not a proven historical sequence. Their origins involve different stories and interpretations.
Choose by what you feel like eating.
Choose cacio e pepe for cheese and pepper, gricia for guanciale, amatriciana for tomato and cured pork, or carbonara for a rich egg-yolk sauce. Explore the available options on BIGA’s current menu and choose your next dish.
Before the first bite.
Is it gricia or griccia?
The usual Italian spelling is gricia, with one c.
Do all four contain guanciale?
No. Cacio e pepe does not. Guanciale appears in the usual preparations of gricia, amatriciana and carbonara.
Which contains tomato, and which contains egg?
Amatriciana contains tomato. Carbonara contains egg; BIGA uses yolk. Traditional cacio e pepe and gricia sauces contain neither.
Rome is closer than you think.
Find us at Av. de Madrid 25, Local 5, Oropesa del Mar. Explore the menu and book online.