Paul Feinstein

The magic words are “cheese,” “pepper” and “pasta.” There are four mother pasta dishes that hail from Rome: There’s pasta alla gricia, bucatini all’amatriciana, pasta carbonara and then there’s the best of the bunch: cacio e pepe. Cacio e pepe roughly translates to “cheese and pepper,” which makes sense; those are the only two ingredients—those, plus the pasta itself. (Sorry Jon & Vinny’s, but you’re serving butter noodles.)  If you’re in Rome, you can seek out delicious, famed options like the cacio e pepes at Felice a Testaccio, Roma Sparita and Trattoria Da Cesare al Casaletto—but in L.A., the best takes on the classic are a little harder to come by. Thankfully, cacio e pepe’s been exploding across the L.A. dining scene, beyond the best Italian restaurants, with a bevy of traditional iterations and a few variations that push the boundaries of what cheese and pepper can become. If you’re looking for the creamiest, cheesiest and most peppery pasta in town, here are the cacios you simply cannot miss.