Experiment: Chocolate pasta

This weekend our experiments in the kitchen were a little bit more daring than usual. On our recent visit to Italy we bought a piece of this particular cheese from Piedmont, known as Castelmagno. Normally made from cow’s milk, this semi-hard cheese is usually tinged with blue mould. It has a crumbly texture and a strong tangy taste, thus it is ideally combined with sweet ingredients such as honey, figs or sultanas.

After some research on the net we came across this recipe of tagliatelle with spinach, honey and Castelmagno. Our variation of this recipe was that we prepared tagliatelle al cacao rather than the usual egg-tagliatelle.

Tagliatelle al cacao con Castelmagno

Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Start to prepare the cocoa egg-dough.

Ingredients for 6 persons:

• 6 eggs
• 500g flour ‘OO’
• 50g cocoa powder

Mix the eggs, flour and cocoa powder in an electric beater until the ingredients start to amalgamate. Continue to form the dough with your hands and work with your palms on a floured surface for around 15–20 minutes until the result is a soft and smooth ball of dough.

[caption id=”attachment_1432" align=”aligncenter” width=”500" caption=”Egg-cocoa pasta dough”]

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We then used the pasta machine to form tagliatelle, sprinkled them with flour and formed pasta nests. Best to leave the nests in a cool dry place on a piece of cloth dusted with flour until serving time. In the absence of a pasta machine or time to prepare fresh pasta you can use common egg-tagliatelle.

[caption id=”attachment_1433" align=”aligncenter” width=”500" caption=”Cocoa tagliatelle”]

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For the sauce you require:

• 200g Castelmagno
• 200g fresh spinach
• 100g sultanas, previously soaked in warm water
• 30g pine nuts, toasted
• 3 tblsp acacia honey
• 40g butter
• extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tblsp fresh cream
• salt & pepper

Clean and wash the spinach leaves then cook in a saucepan with olive oil and butter. Add the sultanas, toasted pine nuts, honey and the cream. Finally throw in the crumbled Castelmagno cheese and stir well.

In the meantime, cook the tagliatelle until al dente. Lightly drain the pasta and add to the cheese mixture stirring well until sauce is blended with pasta. Sprinkle with some freshly milled black pepper and serve with a drizzle of honey and extra virgin olive oil.

[caption id=”attachment_1434" align=”aligncenter” width=”500" caption=”Pasta al cacao e Castelmagno”]

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