Chocolate Chili Pasta is perfectly served with a classic Italian sage and chestnut sauce. A sauce with white wine and pancetta, roasted chestnuts and fresh sage. Not your nonna’s pasta, but she’d love it!
Chocolate Passion
So, you say you love Chocolate. Yummy, thick, sweet, melted, whipped chocolate?
But, maybe what you really love is flavored sugar? Because chocolate is not sweet, or gooey, or melty… It is bitter, powdery, and almost hot.
Let’s challenge your chocolate passion to a new level of flavor. Savory, spicy, hot, tangy umami Chocolate!
Homemade Pasta
If you have ever made pasta, you would know you can hardly mess it up. The only trick to homemade pasta is rolling it out thin enough for your personal preference.
A marble rolling pin on a hard stone surface works quite well. For cheaters like me, I like kitchen gadgets that make my job easier.
If you own a mixer that accommodates attachments and are willing to spend under fifty bucks for a gadget that will connect to your mixer, you will wonder how you have lived without.
The pasta roller gadget can roll that pasta out thin as paper in a matter of minutes! Gadgets. Oh, how I love them.
Chocolate Chili Pasta?
Okay. So now that you’re on board with making your own pasta, lets go all out and make a spectacular pasta; Chocolate Chili Pasta!
It’s really quite easy. The raw cacao powder and chipotle chili powder gets measured in with the flour. The eggs do the rest and before you know it, you’ve got a gourmet Italian dinner.
I love making this pasta for an ‘at home’ Valentines Dinner because it is so easy. I make the pasta early in the day, let it sit on the counter drying out, whip up a sauce and in minutes you’ve got a ‘better than restaurant’ gourmet meal at home!
Once you’ve tried pasta made with unsweetened cacao and chilies you are sure to love Chili Chocolate Cupcakes and an even more interesting combination of Chili Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes. You see… chocolate has a entirely ‘other’ life besides candy!
Sage Chestnut Sauce
Sauce? Did you really think I was going to put tomato sauce on this gorgeous pasta? Nope! Let’s go with a classic Italian Chestnut and Sage Cream Sauce with White Wine and Pancetta.
Sage has become one of my favorite herbs to grow. The scent and flavor is beautiful and I have even found leaves still alive in the dead of winter. Waiting there for my Valentines Dinner!
It doesn’t matter what part of Italy you think this sauce comes from, chestnuts, sage, pancetta are used all over Italy in a variety of recipes.
If it is the season to buy fresh chestnuts in the market, you will need to roast them, and peel them. I have learned (the hard way), to drop them in boiling water for a minute, then roast them on a baking sheet. They peel easier this way.
Otherwise, chestnuts can be found in gourmet markets, already roasted and peeled in either an airtight pouch or a can, year round.
This sauce comes together in minutes, as does the final cooking of the pasta. Your gourmet dinner will look like you’ve slaved away in the kitchen all day, and yet you will have plenty of time to get all dolled up without breaking a sweat!
Ingredients Needed
- Flour
- Cacao
- Salt
- Chipotle chili powder
- Ghost chili – if you dare
- Eggs
- Sage & Chestnut Sauce
Equipment Needed
- Pasta roller – optional but lovely to have
- Marble rolling pin or regular rolling pin
- Knife or pizza cutter for cutting pasta
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Large pot
- Cooking spoon
- Long fork
- Stovetop or burner
Chocolate Chili Pasta with Sage Chestnut Sauce
Course: Pasta, World CuisineCuisine: Mediterranean4
servingsA classic Italian sage and chestnut sauce, with white wine and pancetta, served over a mound of homemade chocolate chili pasta.
Ingredients
Chocolate Pasta Ingredients
Flour – 1 1/2 cups
Cacao – 1/4 cup (unprocessed cocoa)
Salt – 1/2 tsp
Chipotle chili powder – 1/4 tsp
Ghost chili – pinch (optional, if you dare)
Eggs – 3
Directions
- Making the Pasta.
- Create a mound of flour on your countertop. Add salt, cacao, and chili powder. Make a well in the center of the mound and place the eggs in the well. Slowly begin to swirl the dry ingredients into the wet until it all comes together into a dough.
- At this point you can either continue to work with the dough on the counter, or toss it into a mixer with a dough hook, or food processor to finish the dough making process. Give it a whirl to bring the mixture into a shiny dough ball. Working with your hands works too, it just might take a bit longer.
- On a floured surface, roll the dough out as thin as you can, taking care to flip it over, flour, roll, and repeat. If you have a pasta rolling attachment for your mixer, this makes the job faster.
- You will want the dough between an eighth to a quarter inch thin.
- Once the dough is rolled out thin, fold it envelope style and cut into strips the width you want. Wide for lasagna, thinner for fettuccine or spaghetti. Toss the cut noodles in flour to keep them dry until ready to boil. Will keep in airtight container in the fridge for several days.
- When ready to cook, bring a large pot of water to boiling point, add 1/2 tsp of salt to the water. Gently drop the noodles into the water, stirring occasionally. Cook about 7 minutes or until tender, depending on how thick they are.
Notes
- Pine nuts can be substituted but they are not as sweet as chestnuts to balance the heat of the chili spice.
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.
So yummy it is 🙂