Italians have been adding chocolate to pasta, risotto, polenta and meat dishes since the 1500s when cacao beans first arrived from the New World. They immediately began experimenting with chocolate, adding it to many savory dishes."Chocolate, the 'food of the gods,' conquered not just the candy shop, but also the kitchen" 
 
The cacao bean, from which chocolate is made, is not itself sweet.  "Like so many other seeds -- pepper, fennel, cardamom and caraway -- cacao beans are a spice.""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," "Chocolate is, or should be, in everyone's spice rack."

Most of us think of chocolate as something just for dessert, but the Italians have been adding it to pasta, risotto, polenta and meat dishes for centuries.

"Chocolate, the 'food of the gods,' conquered not just the candy shop, but also the kitchen" says Riccardo Magni of ICAM, one of Italy's premier chocolate makers, based in the city of Lecco in the northern region of Lombardy.

This is not so surprising if you reflect that the cacao bean, from which chocolate is made, is not itself sweet. Or, as G.B. Mantelli, marketing director at Venchi, an artisanal chocolate company based in Turin, puts it, "Like so many other seeds -- pepper, fennel, cardamom and caraway -- cacao beans are a spice."

Italian chefs noted this fact back in the 1500s when cacao beans first arrived from the New World. They immediately began experimenting with chocolate, adding it to many savory dishes.

"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," continues Mr. Mantelli. "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.

Even pasta itself can be made with chocolate. It's delicious served with meat or cheese sauces. "Most recipes say to mix the flour and cacao powder together at the start," explains Alessandra Bertucci, the third-generation owner of Pastificio Piemontese, an award-winning artisan pasta maker in Alessandria, Italy. "But we add the cacao powder later, after the dough has already gone through the pasta machine once or twice." This technique not only makes it much easier for the dough to hold together, but also yields a more tender, flavorful pasta.

"Chocolate adds a lovely toasted flavor and a delicious aroma as well as infusing a dish with a silky finish," notes Riccardo Ferrero, executive chef at Turin's historic Del Cambio Restaurant. "Chocolate adds a lovely shine to sauces, much nicer than butter. It can be a prized flavor component for any course, in everything from antipasto to dessert. It's wonderful in salad dressing too, because chocolate mellows the vinegar's acidity."

Chocolate adds an accent to many of Del Cambio's savory dishes, including some that have been on their menu for over 100 years. One of the most popular is vitello brasato -- braised veal -- which is cooked in a sauce of Barolo wine finished with chocolate and served with polenta. Chef Ferrero also bakes delicious chocolate bread that he serves both in the restaurant's breadbasket and with a selection of cheeses.

One of Italy's popular savory chocolate creations is agrodolce, "sour and sweet" sauce for pork or wild game, made from reduced vinegar or wine seasoned with dark chocolate.

"In Tuscany, chocolate is a key ingredient with venison and wild boar," notes Remo Vannini, executive chef of Florence's L'Incontro at Hotel Savoy. "Like wine, vinegar or lemon juice, chocolate provides just the right touch of acidity. We Italians add a hint of chocolate to many sauces. Chocolate acts not only as an emulsifier, adding natural thickness to sauces, but also enhances the other flavors. It is wonderful with game meats, but lovely too with chicken and beef."

Fabio Picchi, owner and chef of Florence's famed Cibreo restaurant, fondly recalls enjoying savory chocolate dishes as a child in Florence: "Cooking with chocolate has a long history here in Tuscany. My grandmother always cooked savory chocolate dishes on Sundays during the winter." Chef Picchi serves an updated version of his grandmother's "chocolate rabbit" at Cibreo, a delicate stew seasoned with hints of candied orange peel.

Picchi waxes poetic on the subject of cooking with chocolate: "Chocolate's flavors persists for hours; its one of the only foods with such lingering after-taste. Besides its spectacular flavors, chocolate also has emotional resonance. Chocolate for dinner? Yes! It's every child's dream, a dream we Italians have made come true for centuries!"
 
A variety of Recipes are available at the website. 

http://www.kfsm.com/lifestyle/food/sns-200911111751
tmsfoodstylts--v-c20091122nov22,0,1941731.story
 
 

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