Chocolate Pasta!

Our good friends the Scheels (and, like proper celebrities, when we refer to the group of us, we become the Scheelensons) and we have a tradition that, when any of us travel, we bring each other souvenirs.  Some are useful, some are not.  I struck gold, however, this past fall, when Megan brought me chocolate pasta from a farmer's market in exotic, faraway Kansas City!

I am not unique in that I love chocolate.  I am, however, quite picky about my pasta.  (I don't even like my own homemade spaghetti sauce)  And as far as noodles go, the thinner, the better.  This particular brand of pasta was flat, and wider than my preferred angel hair - more like a fettucine shape. So, right off the bat, I was suspicious.

Then, this happened:

First of all, the paper crafter in me wanted to slice off the left and bottom margins so that the text was at least centered.  There were clearly four copies of this slapped onto an 8.5x11 sheet and chopped quickly.

Secondly, the editor in me wrung her hands at the typo in instruction #2 that changed the word "Cook" to "Cool."  Those are two completely different instructions that yield completely different results in a recipe.  Check yourselves, Pappardelle's.

Actually boiling up the pasta was fun.  It smelled like cooking pudding on the stovetop in the 80's, all chocolaty and warm and something almost chemical.  I considered for a moment what could be done with chocolate water.  And then poured it down the sink.

A note about "al dente" (or, to the tooth): Al dente means that there is still some firmness in the middle of the noodle.  I have eaten pasta in both America and Italy.  The Italians cook it in the strictest form of al dente, and I was not a fan.  Give me the Olive Garden, smoosh-it-on-the-roof-of-my-mouth soggy pasta any day.

Per the instructions, I cooled it down and put in the fridge to chill.  Nothing looks quite as appetizing as brown noodles, right?

Strawberry sauce-making:

This made my kitchen smell magnificent!  Brewing up some warm strawberry syrup was a skill I didn't know I always wanted. (Name the movie?)

To fully participate in the chocolate pasta experience, I didn't mess with the serving suggestions at all.  I dutifully poured the strawberry syrup over the chilled noodles, then a dollop of whipped cream, like so:

And…we were underwhelmed.

There was only the slightest bit of chocolate flavor.  And plenty of empty pasta texture, which is not my favorite.  As it turns out, cold noodles are only acceptable the morning after a triumphant dinner of chicken pad thai. You can quote me.

This is what my bowl looked like when I was ready to run it to the sink:

And I think Megan herself summed it up best when she said, "My favorite parts were the strawberries and Cool Whip."

I'm sure the good folks at Pappardelle's worked hard on this product.  And kudos for being inventive and thinking outside the box.  I just couldn't quite catch the vision.  But, if anyone at the company ever deigns to read this, I invite you to send me samples of any of your offerings and I will be fair and impartial in revisiting your products.