Chocolate penne pasta with Italian fennel sausage

Posted by petra08 on February 4, 2013 · 6 Comments 

I was a little early for  a meeting and decided to have a browse around Hotel Chocolat, great luck that there was a shop so close! A bag of chocolate penne pasta caught my eye. The guy I was meeting is a foodie so I bought one bag each for us and will compare notes and see what the outcome is and the difference in cooking styles. We did compare ideas, having a bit of brainstorming for fun for a while and then turned our attention to lunch.

After lunch I walked past one of my favorite Italian deli’s in London, I Camisa & Son on Old Compton street. It is one of those places where you go in and you can smell tradition, there is always a warm greeting and they have most of what you might ever want in terms of authentic Italian produce!

I got some fennel sausage to go with the pasta, fresh basil, sliced garlic salami and bressaola and felt very happy. I went back to the office and did some work before heading home to cook my pasta.

Chocolate penne pasta. It looks amazing, there is a distinct cocoa smell but it is not a sweet smell, just pure chocolate.

Chocolate penne pasta with fennel pasta, serves 2 people

• 2 dl chocolate penne pasta
• 1 can pomodori tomatoes
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 2 fennel sausages
• 3 slices of bacon
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tbsp oil for frying
• Salt & pepper

To add at the last minute 

• 1 carrot
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• a handful of black olives
• a handful of fresh basil leaves

Bring the pasta water to boil with salt. Heat the oil in a pan, when it is hot add cut open the sausage and add the meat in to the hot oil. Pan fry and let the sausage brown, break it up gently and add the sliced bacon. When the sausage and bacon are cooked through add the celery and onion and let it brown before adding the tomatoes. Let simmer and taste with salt and pepper.

Peel the carrot and slice it length ways with a potato peeler, slice the spring onions, slice the olives and wash the basil.

Once the pasta is ready add some of the cooking liquid to the sausage and tomato, then drain the pasta and add the penne as well and stir. Add the sliced carrot, spring onion, black olives and fresh basil and serve.

The chocolate pasta added depth of flavor, and it worked really well with the fennel sausage, the tomato added a slight acidity and the flavors complimented each other. I have enough pasta for another dish so need to have a think about what else to cook with this pasta!

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Filed under Allotment/Veg, Carrot, Celery, Garlic, Herbs, Meat, Onion, Pasta, Pork, Recipe, Saussage, Spring onion, Starch, Tomatoes · Tagged with chocolate pasta, fennel sausage, Hotel chocolat