Savory Chocolate Pasta with Hazelnut Chili Cream Sauce
When I think of Valentines day, I think of sugary pink hearts, stuffed teddy bears, roses and of course tons of chocolate. Dark, sweet, melting, sugar filled chocolates. Maybe with a creamy hazelnut center. I’ve always preferred savory foods to sweet, so I decided to flip a classic truffle on it’s head and try something new for Valentine’s day- savory chocolate pasta with hazelnut chili sauce. This dish brings in bright dashes of lime, bitter, dark and earthy notes of cocoa, aromatic cilantro, and spicy bits of chili. It’s all carried together with a light, creamy hazelnut sauce. It’s the perfect Valentine’s day dinner for two!
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Homemade Egg-Free Chocolate Pasta
One of my favorite parts of making this dish was getting a chance to use my pasta machine and make homemade pasta. It’s one of my favorite things to do, and it’s not very difficult (although it is a little more time consuming than the dried, 99¢ a package variety). However, unlike the store bought spaghetti, your pasta choices aren’t limited to the less than imaginative options on the shelves- and despite the popular myth, you really don’t need eggs to make fresh pasta. Basic pasta can be made from all purpose flour and water, but can be flavored with just about anything by using a little less or a little more liquid (depending on if your addition is dry or wet). For this dish I chose to use a dutch processed cocoa powder (which is just cocoa powder that has been treated to have a lower level of acidity, and is less bitter) to give my chocolate pasta a dark, earthy flavor and a beautiful brown color.
Looking for Homemade Pasta? Try one of these!
- White Bean Gnocchi, AKA Vegan Protein Pasta
- Microwave Homemade Rice Noodles
- Crown Daisy Pasta in Spicy Almond Sauce
- Purple Sweet Potato Vegan Gnocchi with Leek, Mushroom and Coconut Cream Sauce
Making Hazelnut Cream Sauce for Chocolate Pasta
The hazelnut cream sauce is essentially a variation of cashew cream, but since it’s a Valentines day dish I thought it would be good to make it extra fancy with a fancier nut. Hazelnuts need to soak longer than cashews to achieve a nice, even, creamy blend, so make sure to plan ahead a little and soak your hazelnuts at least 12 hours before you plan on making the dish. As long as you make sure to give them a long soaking time, hazelnuts will give you an extra creamy sauce- since they have slightly more fat than cashews, the resulting cream is extra velvety. I used unsweetened plain soy milk to help the hazelnuts blend where I would normally have used water- just another slightly special adjustment to help the sauce be as creamy and rich as possible. If you don’t have any unsweetened, plain vegan milk around water would probably do the trick. I found this sauce also needed more liquid than cashew cream sauce does- you might find you need a little more or less than what I used, so make sure to add it slowly to get the perfect consistency for your sauce.
The Final Touches
Finally, lets talk about garnish- this is one of those cases where the garnish on my dishes adds an important element to the flavor of the dish itself. Serving with lime slices allows you to squeeze some lime juice over your pasta, giving you variation in the amount of bright citrus in your dish. The chili powder sprinkled on top should be left off if spicy food isn’t your thing, but I found the extra little zing a pleasant addition. Hazelnuts on the side add crunch to an otherwise crunch-less dish, and the cilantro on top as a pleasant, aromatic element to the dish that melds perfectly with the lime and chili. For those of you who aren’t cilantro fans (it’s not your fault, blame your genes), flat-leaf parsley will work as a stand in.
Looking for Chocolate Recipes? Try one of these!
- Dark Chocolate Vegan Peanut Butter Fudge
- Chocolate Beet Muffins (Vegan, Gluten-Free, Oil-Free)
- Homemade Vegan Strawberry Flavored Chocolates
- Gluten-Free Vegan Bars with Teff and Chocolate
- Classic Vegan Chocolate Ganache Truffles
- Chocolate Wedding Cake: Vegan Chocolate Cake with Dairy Free Ganache
- Nut-Free Sunflower Seed Butter Vegan Chocolate Cups
- Vegan White Chocolate Granola with Wild Blueberries
Feel the Vegan Love
I want to finish this post up with a few words on Valentine’s day- it’s very much a commercialize holiday, with pressure to surprise your special someone with candies, flowers or jewelry. While I don’t love those aspects of the day, I do still love Valentine’s day- I guess I’m secretly a sucker for love. Whether I’ve spent Valentine’s day with close friends (a Galentine’s day celebration), with my boyfriend, or with my family, I’ve always loved a day with a little more love to go around.
Show Your Love with Some of these other Vegan Dishes
- Vegan Posole with Tempeh and Mushrooms
- Homemade Vegan Caviar
- Vegan Chocolate Wedding Cake with Dairy Free Ganache
- Sweetened Vegan Cashew Mascarpone
- Vegan Lavender Aquafaba Meringues
- Orange Chamomile Honeycomb Vegan Candy Recipe
Savory Chocolate Pasta with Spicy Hazelnut Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup dutch processed cocoa powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- 6 tbsp. unsweetened, plain soy milk
- 1 cup raw, unsalted hazelnuts
- ¾ cup soymilk
- 1 clove garlic
- 2-3 limes, juiced
- 1 tsp. chili powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 lime, sliced
- Cilantro or flat-leaf parsley
- Chili Powder
- A handful of hazelnuts
Instructions
- The day before you make this dish, place the hazelnuts in a bowl covered with water, and allow to soak for at least 12 hours. Alternatively, you can soften your hazelnuts by pressure cooking them for 20 minutes in a pressure cooker.
- Put the flour, cocoa powder, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse a few times. Start adding soymilk in, about 1 tbsp. at a time, until the flour forms a dry dough. Take out of the food processor and kneed several times, adding a little more flour if the dough is wet. Form the dough into a ball and let sit while you prepare the sauce.
- Drain the hazelnuts and place in the blender with all the other ingredients for the sauce. Blend until it is smooth, and then taste, adjusting the flavors if necessary.
- Place a large pot of water on the stove to boil and return to the pasta. Divide the dough into 4 even pieces and use a pasta maker to roll out thinly (you can use a rolling pin, but it will be a lot more work). Cut your noodles using the fettuccini setting (or just use a knife to cut into fairly thin strips) and set the noodles aside. When the noodles are all ready, place in the boiling water until they start to rise to the top (this should only take a minute or so), then drain.
- Serve the pasta with the hazelnut cream sauce on top, garnished with cilantro, lime slices, hazelnuts and chili powder.
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Let’s hear from you…
- How do you like to celebrate Valentines day?
- Are there other sauces you would like to try with this chocolate pasta?
- Is Valentines day about romantic love, loving your friends, or self-love? Or all of the above?
Share your answers with us in the comments below!
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Nice and tasty recipe 🙂
What a great idea to combine ingredients like this! Chocolate pasta? I have to try it asap! And love hazelnuts too… thank you for this recipe, I really enjoyed it!
Thanks Mari! I hope you try it, I had a lot of fun making it!
OMG chocolate pasta. What a neat idea. Love it. Have to try this soon. my kids would absolutely love it. 🙂
Thank you! Let me know what you think if you have a chance to try them!
Wow, this is really cool! I’ve near tried chocolate pasta before. I can image how delicious it is with this sauce!
Thanks! It’s a really fun dish 🙂
this is so interesting… never thought of making chocolate pasta, but I love the idea!
This is such a beautiful recipe. I can tell you took your time to really create something special. You are making me want to buy a pasta maker.. I always thought it was super complicated, but I’m going to do some research. I would love to make my own pasta at home vs buying what’s on the store shelves. Anyway, thanks for this lovely recipe. Happy Vday!
Thanks! You should definitely look into it! Most of the time I use store-bought pasta (it’s a lot quicker with less clean up), but on weekends or when I have more time I like to bring out the pasta maker.