Pasta with Chocolate

I read about this in an article referencing an Italian tradition of adding chocolate to savory dishes to deepen and enrich the flavors.

From the article:

"It's only the addition of sugar that makes chocolate sweet. Fine dark chocolate, like fine wine, has an amazingly complex taste profile, with hundreds of distinct nuanced aromas and flavors," Mantelli says. "Chocolate is, or should be, in everyone's spice rack."

Among the most classic and simplest uses of chocolate in savory food is as a topping to certain pasta dishes. One simple recipe is to toss cooked pasta with ground walnuts and gorgonzola cheese and top it with grated dark chocolate. Chocolate is also incorporated into fillings for ravioli, such as the Italian fall favorite pumpkin-chocolate ravioli served with a brown butter sage sauce. [Bold emphasis mine!]

And here is another recipe:

Pasta with Sage and Chocolate

Chocolate adds an unexpected rich, deep flavor to this simple pasta sauce. The recipe is courtesy of G.B. Martelli of the chocolatier Venchi S.p.A.

• 1 pound spaghetti or fettuccine

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter

• 4 shallots, finely minced

• 20 fresh sage leaves, plus more for garnish

• Freshly ground black pepper or crushed red pepper, to taste

• 1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

• 1 to 2 ounces Venchi Chocaviar bits, or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely grated

Prepare the pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and saute the shallots and sage leaves, for about 8 minutes, until the butter is golden brown.

Toss the pasta with the sage-shallot butter and about 1/4 cup of the pasta's cooking water. Season with pepper.

Serve topped with the cheese and a generous sprinkling of Chocaviar or grated chocolate. Garnish with sage leaves.

Makes 6 servings.

via Pittsburgh Live