I love eating pasta but don't tend to make it alot at home - I never really know what sort of dish to make.
My gut reaction was to couple it with beef in some way. I'm not sure why - just picturing lovely pink medium-rare steak slivers nestled in chocolate pasta sounds rather divine.
But I'm not that great at doing steak, despite being a bit of a beefy eater, and figured I'd probably mess it up. I still wanted something bright though against the dark pasta, so I decided to go with pink salmon instead. Yes, there is a crazy logic to how recipes emerge from Hungry Jenny land.
What with this being a special kind of pasta, I didn't want to just do a simple cream sauce either, but struggled to think of what savoury flavours would go well with chocolate.
Then it hit me - mint. It's a good friend to chocolate, and no stranger to salmon either. So surely that could all work together?
Why yes, I'm glad to say it does!
The chocolate pasta is indeed chocolately, but not in an overly sweet way. It holds it own and doesn't taste like thick slabs of chocolate which I thought it might do. To continue the chocolate theme, I also grilled the salmon in some lemon-fused cocoa powder, chopping it roughly in with some soft greens. The minty creme fraiche sauce is simple but is all you need to bring this dish together - with a sneaky bit of chocolate pasta water too if you like ;-)
Chocolate Minted Salmon Pasta
Serves 2:
150g chocolate pasta
2 salmon fillets
1 tsp cocoa powder
Juice of 1 lemon
150g marrowfat peas
100g spinach
2 tbsp creme fraiche
1 tbsp fresh mint
1) Gently bring the pasta to boil, then leave to simmer on a low heat for about 15 minutes until al dente. Drain, reserving some of the chocolate pasta water.
2) Mix half the lemon juice in a bowl with the cocoa powder. Brush the mixture over the salmon fillets.
3) Stick the fillets under the grill for 8-10 minutes until done - use a fork to see if the edge flakes easily. Leave to rest.
4) Meanwhile, gently heat the peas and spinach in a pan. Add the creme fraiche and mint, stirring well. Pour in some of the reserved pasta water if you wish.
5) Add the cooked pasta and squeeze in the remaining lemon juice.
6) Roughly chop the grilled salmon into large chunks and nestle into the pasta before serving.
Serves 2:
150g chocolate pasta
2 salmon fillets
1 tsp cocoa powder
Juice of 1 lemon
150g marrowfat peas
100g spinach
2 tbsp creme fraiche
1 tbsp fresh mint
1) Gently bring the pasta to boil, then leave to simmer on a low heat for about 15 minutes until al dente. Drain, reserving some of the chocolate pasta water.
2) Mix half the lemon juice in a bowl with the cocoa powder. Brush the mixture over the salmon fillets.
3) Stick the fillets under the grill for 8-10 minutes until done - use a fork to see if the edge flakes easily. Leave to rest.
4) Meanwhile, gently heat the peas and spinach in a pan. Add the creme fraiche and mint, stirring well. Pour in some of the reserved pasta water if you wish.
5) Add the cooked pasta and squeeze in the remaining lemon juice.
6) Roughly chop the grilled salmon into large chunks and nestle into the pasta before serving.
Have you tried chocolate pasta before?
2 comments:
How very interesting! I've never heard of chocolate pasta but I would find a way to make it too. Lovely dish and will try the mint on salmon soon. Have a great week@
Yeh, this was bought for me from a chain based in the UK called Hotel Chocolat (though there is one in Boston now too) but there are recipes out there for making it yourself too.
Hope you enjoy it if you decide to try it out!
Hungry Jenny x
Post a Comment