To which Eric said: "Cool. What would we serve that with?"
And I replied: "No idea."
Then this morning I woke up as I opened my eyes, my first thought of the day was, "Mole! I'll make chicken mole to go with our chocolate pasta!"
Now, here is some background on chicken mole: Mole is a traditional Mexican sauce made with cocoa powder, and it can be served with chicken or other forms of protein. Eric had a particularly notable run-in with the dish back in a St. Andrews Mexican restaurant, where, in his own words, "I ordered a dish, resplendent with exotic flair, but when the server returned, she set down the dish and said, 'Here's your chocolate chicken.' She needed to work on her presentation."
Well, we figured this was our chance to redeem Eric's crestfallen encounter with chicken mole, and we figured this was also a great opportunity to show off our increasingly adventurous cooking skills to our friend Alice, who was visiting from out of town.
So, this afternoon I went into Williams-Sonoma and picked up a pasta making attachment to go with the Kitchen-Aid we're borrowing from our neighbor J (and shoutout of thanks also go to J,Q,A&E for the giftcard!) Since mole is a notoriously complex sauce, I figured I'd just buy a jar of it in Williams-Sonoma, run to the grocery store to get some chicken, come home, make the pasta and be done with it. But then......
drum roll....
Williams-Sonoma was out of mole sauce!
I tried Whole Foods.
They were out too!
There was an empty spot on the wall!
I didn't know where else to turn, and then....
A guy who worked at the Whole Foods said, "Well, why don't you make it yourself?" to which I thought, "But it is notoriously complex, and I am going to make chocolate pasta...isn't that enough?" but, like the Iron Chef, I didn't want to admit weakness, so instead I said, "Of course! Great idea. But I have no recipe." (Great way to save face, huh?)
His reply: "I'll go print you out one."
So off he went to the front of the store and five minutes later, he returned with a blessedly simple recipe, which I of course modified as soon as I got home!
The short story is that chocolate pasta + chicken mole is AMAZING! In Alice's own words of praise, "I must facebook about this!"
Danielle, Eric, and Alice's Favorite Valentine's Day Chocolate Pasta with Chicken Mole
To make the pasta:
3.5 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
4 eggs
pinch of salt
8 tablespoons water at minimum (add more as needed--I needed about 14)
Combine flour, salt, and cocoa powder; mix until well-blended.
Make a well in the center and add the eggs. Gently knead together, adding water as needed, until the dough is firm and elastic, but not too wet.
Let sit for half an hour for the gluten to activate (or so the recipe I used requested)
The next steps are really hard without a pasta maker and really easy with one. If you have a pasta maker, add the dough in (we used the rigatoni setting) and make your pasta. If not, roll out the dough really thin and then slice 1/2 inch wide strips to make a fettucine (we did not do this, but it seems the easiest thing to do without a pasta maker). Lay out the pasta on a flat towel sprinkled with cornmeal and let dry for 2-3 hours. When you boil the pasta, it will only need to cook about 2 minutes.
Chicken Mole:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
1 15 oz can tomato sauce (the kind that's just pureed tomatoes, not a flavored Italian sauce)
1/3 cup of water
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin seeds (or powder)
2-3 tsp chili powder (or to taste)
.5 tsp cloves
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2.5 pounds chicken breasts, cut in half
cilantro for garnish
gouda for garnish
Combine olive oil, onion, and green pepper and cook for a couple of minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the tomato sauce, water, cinnamon, coriander, cumin seeds, chili powder, cloves, and cocoa powder and bring to a simmer. Add in chicken, cover, and cook for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, remove chicken and shred it (you could leave it, if you prefer, but we shredded it).
Place mole on top of chocolate pasta, garnish with cilantro and gouda to taste.
Enjoy with those you love!
Happy Valentine's Day from D&E!
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