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April/May 202 2 XI MAGAZINE The answer is yes! Chocolate is an ingredient that lends itself to daring combinations that enliven the menu and amaze the palate. On the other hand, cocoa was certainly not used as a sweet by the Central American peoples who first discovered it. Crumbled cocoa beans were used to make drinks, soups, sauces, often combined with chilli peppers. The concept of dessert did not even exist. It was only in the last few centuries of a history spanning more than 5,000 years that people began to combine cocoa with sugar or honey. This led to the birth of chocolate and its use in confectionery. “Using chocolate in savoury recipes,” explains Marta Giorgetti, pastry chef for Chocolate Academy Milano and a great chocolate expert, “is a bit like going back to the origins. We are passionate about chocolate even though we have always linked it to desserts, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be daring, on the contrary. Fortunately, today in the kitchen there is room for a mixture of sensations, even unrelated ones: hot and cold, soft crunchy and sweet and salty, they are worlds apart, but together they create innovative and surprising universes”. An ingredient to get to know better The criterion to be used in creating innovative recipes is not personal taste, but the molecular affinities between even unrelated foods (more on this later). “The possibilities,” says Giorgetti, “are practically infinite: it’s just a matter of opening your mind and breaking out of conventional combinations. The only obstacle I see to using chocolate in the kitchen is a lack of knowledge about the product. It’s a complex ingredient that can be difficult for pastry chefs. The cook knows even less about it. It’s a question of breaking down the fear that limits us in our approach to this food, and of having the will to dare”. Marta Giorgetti suggests some possible simple combinations between different varieties of chocolate and some savoury foods. “Ruby (or pink chocolate),” she says, “is a sour chocolate with fruity notes and goes very well with cheese. With fish, on the other hand, I like white chocolate, with its sweetness and creaminess: a simple boiled fish can be enhanced by an accompanying white chocolate sauce. Dark chocolate or cocoa powder, on the other hand, go well with game or important meats. As far as first courses are concerned, the possibilities are practically endless, playing with accompanying sauces or fillings, in the case of filled pasta. For risottos, white chocolate or cocoa butter can be used for the creaming process”. EXPERIENCES WITH FILLED PASTA Chef Antonella Ricci, of the Antonella Ricci & Vinod Sookar restaurant in Ceglie Messapica (Br), tried her hand at stuffed pasta, creating sauces to accompany the first savoury industrial product, a deep- frozen fresh stuffed pasta that uses Ruby chocolate as a filling ingredient, together with gorgonzola. The Apulian chef proposes two dishes. The first is a simple preparation that brings out the flavour of the filling, made with aubergine cooked under hot ashes - a traditional cooking method for large vegetables in Puglia -, crispy pancetta and semi-mature cacioricotta cheese. The second has an ethnic twist, with yellow date cream, dried anchovy, liquorice powder, coconut milk, lemongrass and Mediterranean herbs. “I love experimenting in the kitchen,” says the chef, “it’s a great opportunity to grow and broaden your horizons. That’s why I accepted the challenge of creating condiments for this pasta. I had never used chocolate in my dishes before, but now I say to myself “why not?”. I realised that anchovy brings out a lot of the flavour of chocolate and I think fish can be a good match. I’m thinking in particular of cod, dosing the salt throughout soaking”. NOT ONLY TO CORRECT THE TASTE Luca Malacrida, Captain of the APCI (Associazione Professionale Cuochi Italiani - Professional Association of Italian Chefs) National Team, has been working with chocolate for a long time. “I started using chocolate”’ he says, “as someone from the mountains transplanted in Rome, revisiting Roman cuisine. I used it in coda alla vaccinara, I grated it on amatriciana. Cooking a lot, I discovered the technological function of cocoa butter: it’s perfect for creaming because it keeps the pasta crispier on the outside but softer on the inside. I think it’s limiting to use chocolate and cocoa only to remove the flaws in a dish, for example to dilute the strong taste of game. You have to open your mind and use chocolate as the main ingredient, with meat, with fish, with cheese. For example, I made an experimental ‘cacio e pepe’ in Rome, replacing pecorino cheese with ice chocolate (chocolate powder) mixed with aromatic roasted pepper. I think the result was remarkable. __________________________________ LONG BOX Chemistry The possibility of combining foods that are very different from each other is not the result of chance. This is the opinion of François Chartier, Canadian sommelier and winner of the title of World’s Best Sommelier in 1994, who has studied food aromas and molecules in depth over the years and written several books on the subject. Thanks to his study of the dominant molecules in food, he proposes combinations that are only apparently daring. According to his research, the combination of ingredients that share one or more dominant aromatic molecules results in very intense flavours. For example, he suggests combining cheese with asparagus, aubergines or cheese. In Italy, he also presented his research at the Chocolate Academy in Milan, offering new ideas to work on. __________________________________ SHORT BOX Traditional recipes For those who think that the use of chocolate in savoury dishes is a modern fad, Italian regional tradition provides the proof. There is no shortage of recipes containing this ingredient. A few examples? Cjarsons - or cjalzons – a typical ravioli Antonella Ricci Chef Marta Giorgetti and Luca Malacrida (on the right)