Pasta and chocolate: recipes and combinations to try

Tagliatelle with cocoa recipe

Some people won’t have a go at making fresh pasta because they think it's very complex and requires a lot of manual skill, but it’s actually easier than it looks. Cocoa tagliatelle can be made in exactly the same way as classic tagliatelle; all you need to do is to change your ingredients slightly, adding some Venchi bitter cocoa to the dough. The result is a sure-fire delight! 

 

Ingredients 

• 360 g flour 

• 4 eggs 

• 40 g bitter cocoa powder 

• 5 g salt 

• Water as required 

 

Difficulty: Easy 

Preparation time: 60 minutes + 60 minutes resting time + 5 minutes cooking time 

How to make cocoa tagliatelle 

• Put all the ingredients in a bowl and start kneading, first with a wooden spoon, then with your hands. Add a little water bit by bit until you have a compact and uniform mixture. 

• Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to rest in a cool place for at least an hour. 

• Roll out the dough with a rolling pin and cut it into sheets around 1 mm thick, then lay them on a lightly floured cloth, separating them from one other with a little flour. 

• Roll the sheets, starting from the short side, and cut into strips around 7 mm wide. 

 

Now you can cook your pasta: 3 or 4 minutes in boiling salted water will be enough. After this, you can experiment for yourself with different sauces and toppings for your cocoa tagliatelle. 

If you have guests and want to prepare the raw tagliatelle in advance, we recommend spreading them on a tray, covering them with a towel and putting them in the fridge. Alternatively, if you want to keep the cocoa tagliatelle fresh for a few days, you can put them in an airtight container. 

 

Cocoa tagliatelle with fish

One of the tastiest and most surprising combinations between chocolate and pasta is cocoa tagliatelle with fish sauce. Simply flavour some fish⁠—we recommend prawns and cuttlefish—in a saucepan with a little oil and some garlic, deglaze with wine, then cover with the sauce, leaving to cook over a low heat for around forty minutes. When cooked, simply pan-fry the cocoa tagliatelle with the fish for a few minutes and add some fresh parsley when plating. 

Alternatively, you can put a fresh spin on a classic by pairing cocoa tagliatelle with cream and salmon, the perfect dish for a hearty and different first course! 

 

Cocoa fettuccine and other varieties of pasta with chocolate 

Lots of people get them mixed up, but tagliatelle, fettuccine, tagliolini and pappardelle are four different varieties of egg pasta: they’re made in the same way, it’s just that the strips vary in width. The good news is that all egg pasta works well with cocoa, regardless of its shape. 

To make these different types, the strips need to be cut in different ways: as we’ve seen, cocoa tagliatelle should be around 7 mm wide, cocoa fettuccine should be no greater than 5 mm wide, cocoa pappardelle can be as thin as 2 mm wide and tagliolini—the thinnest of them all—should be no greater than 2 mm wide. 

 

Cocoa fettuccine: what to top them with 

Cocoa fettuccine work well with creamy, full-bodied sauces, like walnut and gorgonzola. 

Making this dish is very easy: first of all, heat up some fresh cream in a saucepan and add cubed gorgonzola, stirring constantly until it has melted, then add the drained cocoa fettuccine cooked al dente. Take it off the heat and add finely chopped walnuts. Serve straight away to enjoy the contrast between the softness of the fettuccine and the crunchiness of the nuts in the sauce! 

Another one that works well with cocoa fettuccine or tagliatelle is the classic butter and Parmesan sauce. To make this sauce even creamier, try setting aside a ladleful of the pasta cooking water, and stir it in with the tagliatelle for a first course that’s as simple as it is irresistibly delicious.  

If you want to try a more daring and unusual pairing, try beef or⁠—even better⁠—rabbit ragout for the perfect meat-and-chocolate first course. 

 

Cocoa fettuccine with rabbit ragout recipe 

Rabbit ragout is a good alternative to the classic beef one traditionally prepared in Italy on Sundays, and its surprisingly delicate flavour works perfectly with the sweetness of the cocoa fettuccine. 

 

Preparation 

1. Cut the rabbit meat into chunks and marinate for a couple of hours with juniper berries, garlic, pepper and red wine. 

2. Transfer everything into a saucepan with a soffritto in it, and cook over a gentle heat for one hour.  

3. Once warm, cut the chunks of rabbit meat into even smaller pieces with a knife. 

4. Finally, add tomato pulp and return to the heat for around twenty minutes.  

5. In the meantime, cook the cocoa fettuccine in plenty of salted water, drain when al dente and pour over the sauce.  

 

Looking for a little extra touch for your chocolate noodles? Sprinkle the plate with some cocoa powder!