Breakfast Recipe: Cacio e Pepe

This Italian-themed breakfast recipe is a refreshing savory alternative to the typical overly sweet trail breakfast. The oats give it a creamy pasta-like texture and the addition of olive oil and Parmesan provide satiation and lasting energy that you won’t get from a packet of sweetened instant oatmeal.

Meal stats

  • Recommended serving weight: 4.6 oz
  • Total calories: 611
  • Caloric density: 137 cal/oz

Those wanting more calories or a higher caloric density should increase the quantity of olive oil, Parmesan, or almonds.

Ingredients


The ingredients for this meal can easily be found in most grocery stores. The dehydrated chives add great flavor. Don’t skip them. Use fresh if you’re feeling fancy.

At-home preparation

When solo, I bag all of the  ingredients together save for the olive oil and parmesan.

In a group, each member is given their own bag of oats, powdered milk, and dried chives. The olive oil and parmesan are communally carried, and distributed in the field.

To carry the olive oil, I recommend a Nalgene bottle (4 to 32 oz), which has a reliably tight screw-lid.

Cooking instructions

For perfect consistency:

  1. Add the olive oil near the start, so that it gets absorbed by the ingredients.
  2. Bring 8 ounces of water to a boil.
  3. Add the bag of oats, milk powder, and chive mix.
  4. Simmer for at least 60 seconds. The longer it’s simmered (up to about five minutes for traditional rolled oats), the creamier it will get.
  5. Remove from the heat.
  6. Sprinkle the almonds and parmesan on top, and lightly mix. Enjoy.

Have questions or an experience with this meal? Leave a comment.


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7 Comments

  1. Dave on October 14, 2024 at 10:10 am

    Hi Andrew,

    I’m looking over the post – while I see polenta being mentioned, it doesn’t seem to be in the quantities nor the recipe. Was it just missed?

    • Katie Gerber on October 15, 2024 at 7:14 am

      Hey Dave,

      That photo and caption were mistakenly pulled over from another recipe. The post has since been updated. No polenta in this one.

  2. David N. on November 19, 2024 at 7:05 pm

    Loved this meal. I prefer savory to sweet and almonds are my favorite nut, so I appreciate having this option in my recipe bank to pull from. Thanks for sharing, Katie! Maybe it should be ‘Caci-oat e Pepe’?

  3. Justin L on November 20, 2024 at 10:25 am

    The cacio e pepe recipes were my favorite! Thank you for sharing.

  4. Chive On on November 21, 2024 at 6:23 am

    Don’t, unless you have really specific and frankly strange food preferences, actually put in a full 1/10th of an ounce of dehydrated chives. That’s half a bottle. https://www.heb.com/product-detail/h-e-b-dried-chives-0-2-oz/4384575

    • Andrew Skurka on November 21, 2024 at 7:31 am

      For sure, that’d be a lot. We actually use 0.05 oz per serving, but the spreadsheet was rounding it to 0.1. That column now has two decimal points, for clarity.

      • Chive On on November 21, 2024 at 8:10 am

        Awesome. BTW I had this for breakfast this morning and it’s great. Very parm-forward, not that there’s a problem with that. Will bring with me on a short trip next week.

        I typically use a ~50/50 mix of instant/rolled oats in the field to ease cooking while retaining good texture, and that worked well here too.

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