Spagetti Sweetie

Chocolate spaghetti served with dark chocolate sauce, sweet walnut pesto, espresso granita and candied kumquats. The Italians have been at the sweet pasta lark forever but it’s not caught on big time in the UK yet...and we think it should. Make these slippery chocolate strands the base of a mouthwatering combination, adding a rich chocolate sauce, a sprinkling of minty walnut pesto, an intense, slightly bitter coffee ice, and the sharp-sweet tang of barely cooked caramelized kumquats. Separately all classic flavours, but together they let rip!

While many foods have been labelled 'super' as a sneaky marketing ploy, walnuts truly are a ‘super food’. They have the highest antioxidant activity of all nuts and are delicious too. They are also packed full of vitamin E, which is excellent for heart health, and are rich in cholesterol-lowering plant serums and omega 3 oils, which can help keep you jolly.

Author
Terre a Terre

Terre a Terre: The Vegetarian Cookbook by Amanda Powley and Philip Taylor (Absolute Press £20)

Ingredients and Method

Walnut Pesto
75g walnuts, toasted and chopped
50g mint leaves, chopped
grated zest of 1 orange

Put all the ingredients in a pestle and mortar (or mixer) and pound together. You do not want a paste, just a nice crumbly mix of the ingredients to sprinkle over the pasta.

Chocolate Pasta
250g ‘00’ pasta flour
30g good quality cocoa powder
2 eggs, beaten
3–4 tablespoons cold water

Sieve the flour and cocoa together (either on to a work surface or into a large bowl).
Make a deep well in the centre of the dry mix, and pour in the beaten eggs and 2 tablespoons of the water. Using a circular motion draw the dry mix into the centre and add another tablespoon of water. Mix with a fork until the mixture binds together (adding more water if necessary).

Bring all the mix together and start kneading with your hands to form a smooth ball of dough (this takes approximately 10 minutes). Cover the dough with cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Using a pasta machine, roll out one quarter of the dough at a time, in the same way as you would roll out any pasta, stopping at setting number 2 to make spaghetti.

Leave the strands to hang over a broom handle or similar to dry for at least 10 minutes. If you are not quite ready to cook them yet, layer the slightly dried out pasta in loose bundles between greaseproof paper and refrigerate in a sealed container.

Only cook the pasta just before you are ready to eat. Add a drop of olive oil to a large pan of water, bring to the boil and plunge in the pasta. Cook for 1 minute only, then quickly drain.

Candied Kumquats
200ml water
100g caster sugar, plus extra for dipping
½ vanilla pod
200g kumquats

Bring the water to the boil and add the sugar and vanilla pod. Gently simmer for 5 minutes until a syrupy consistency is reached.

Halve the kumquats lengthways. Bring a dry non-stick frying pan to medium heat. Dip the kumquats cut side down into a little caster sugar and place them face down in the frying pan, cooking until they are nicely caramelized. Now put them straight into the syrupy mixture, bring it back to the boil and simmer for 1 minute. Leave to one side until you are ready to assemble the dish.

Chocolate Sauce
300ml whipping cream
175g dark chocolate (65 per cent cocoa solids)

Bring the cream to the boil in a small pan and remove it from the heat. Add the chocolate and whisk well to make a smooth sauce. Once cooled, refrigerate until you are ready to use it.

Espresso Granita
100ml strong espresso coffee
400ml Sugar Syrup
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients together in a container and freeze. Fork through the mix every 30 minutes to form icy coffee crystals, then freeze until you are ready to use it.

To assemble

The pasta is best cooked just before serving (see recipe). Heat through the chocolate sauce in a pan. Twist the freshly cooked and drained spaghetti into portions, using a long pronged fork, and spoon a generous amount of the chocolate sauce over the top. Sprinkle with the walnut pesto and lay some kumquats to one side, drizzling the kumquat syrup over them. Serve the espresso granita in icy cups on the side of the plates.

Terre a Terre

Located in the south lanes close to the seafront Terre à Terre is one of Brighton's leading
restaurants and continuously retaining the prestigious AA Two Rosettes and Michelin: "Bib Gourmand” awards.

Photography credited to Lisa Barber