# Cacio e Uova: Naples' Egg-and-Cheese Pasta Achieves Silky Perfection
The Neapolitan pasta kitchen strips cuisine to its essence with cacio e uova, a dish that builds its richness from just eggs, cheese, and pasta water. No cream. No meat. No complexity beyond technique.
The sauce works through emulsification. Yolks and grated cheese, usually pecorino romano or a blend with parmigiano-reggiano, combine with starchy pasta cooking liquid to form a glossy coating that clings to each strand. The heat from freshly drained pasta cooks the eggs into a custard-like finish without scrambling them. Timing matters absolutely.
This dish belongs to a family of Roman and Neapolitan pasta preparations that includes cacio e pepe and carbonara. Each relies on the same basic chemistry: fat from cheese or pork, eggs or not, starch from water, heat from hot pasta. The results differ dramatically based on these variables. Cacio e uova sits somewhere between cacio e pepe's austere elegance and carbonara's richer, meatier profile.
The beauty lies in restraint. A pound of pasta calls for roughly six egg yolks and two cups of grated pecorino. Cracked black pepper and perhaps a pinch of salt finish the dish. Some Neapolitan cooks add guanciale, the cured pork jowl that defines carbonara in Rome, but traditionalists keep it meatless.
The pasta choice matters. Long, thin shapes like spaghetti or bucatini capture sauce better than tubes. Tonnarelli, the square-cut Roman pasta, works beautifully. Fresh or dried both succeed, though dried pasta's rough surface grabs more sauce