Sicilian Chocolate Lasagna and Annie’s Dark Chocolate Lasagna
As promised…two recipes for lasagna. The first one is a Sicilian Chocolate Lasagna. The ones I made in the past were fantastic. Everyone knew there was something in the tomato sauce, but couldn’t quite figure it out. There’s dark chocolate in it. Shut the door! No, I’m completely serious. I put cocoa and chocolate in chili, why not tomato sauce. The recipe comes from a Sicilian grandmother that wanted me to marry her son. Too bad I didn’t like her son. I loved her! As always…I digress. I promise you’ll love this recipe.
The second recipe…this one is for dessert. Please do not try to be cute and do a theme night serving both lasagnas. Your guest will fill sick and also gain 10 pounds blaming you! I first made this recipe about 10 years ago. I didn’t like it the way it first came out. It tasted like cheesecake with noodles. This one turns out more like a chocolate cannoli with noodles. I found chocolate lasagna noodles a few years ago and haven’t seen them since. You could also make your own. The recipe calls for regular lasagna noodles, so don’t sweat it! The chocolate ones just added a different twist. Enjoy and pace yourself!
Sicilian Chocolate Lasagna
Serves 8
Ingredients:
For the Sauce:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 pound lean ground beef, minced
1/2 pound lean ground pork, minced
1 cup red wine
8 ounces tomato puree
1/4 dark chocolate (70% or higher cocoa content), chopped
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Salt and black pepper to taste
For Assembling:
1 pound dried lasagna
1/2 cup grated Pecorino (You may use Parmesan. Fresh please, no cans! )
1 pound buffalo mozzarella, sliced (You can use regular mozzarella.)
1 1/2 pounds ricotta cheese
Garnish: grated cheese, extra sauce and/or parsley or basil leaf
Directions:
For Sauce:
Warm olive oil in large pot. Add onion and garlic. When onion is softened, about 10 minutes, add meat and saute over high heat until lightly browned. Stir in red wine, tomato puree, cinnamon, chocolate and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for one hour covered.
For Assembling:
Preheat oven 350°F. Cook lasagna in abundant boiling water. When not quite al dente, stop cooking, drain and lay each noodle on a damp towel in preparation for assembling.
Coat bottom of deep baking dish sparingly with tomato sauce. Line with layer of lasagna. Dot with spoonfuls of ricotta, slices of mozzarella. Sprinkle lightly with grated cheese, spread with sauce. Repeat layers in same order ending the top layer with pasta,. Spread this last layer with tomato sauce and grated cheese. Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and cook additional 30 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.
Sicilian Chocolate Lasagna
Annie’s Dark Chocolate Lasagna
Serves 8
Ingredients:
For the Filling:
1 1/2 lbs. (about 2-1/2 packed cups) Mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract (I’ve substituted almond extract before and it was good.)
Grated zest 1/2 large orange
3/4 cup dark chocolate (70% of higher cocoa content), chopped
½ cup currants, chopped
½ cup pistachios, chopped
9-10 lasagna noodles
For the Sauce:
8 ounces dark chocolate (70% of higher cocoa content), chopped
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. heavy cream
dash sea salt
Directions:
For Filling:
In a large bowl, beat Mascarpone, sugar, and heavy cream. Add cocoa powder, eggs and vanilla extract. Stir in orange zest. In small bowl, combine chocolate, currants, and pistachios with spoon.
For Assembling:
Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. Place cooked noodles on parchment paper or a cutting board. Make sure they are dry.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 7” x 11” deep baking pan. Line the bottom of the baking pan with three cooked noodles. Noodles may overlap slightly. Trim short ends so they’ll fit into pan. Carefully pour about half of filling on top of noodles. Spread half of sauce over filling. Sprinkle about half of the chocolate mixture evenly over sauce. Repeat this with three more noodles for second pasta layer, the remainder of filling, rest of sauce and rest of chocolate mixture. The top layer should be of cooked noodles. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. Bake the covered lasagna for 35 minutes. Remove from oven. Allow to stand, covered, for 15 minutes before serving. While lasagna is cooling, make sauce.
For the Sauce:
In small bowl, combine chocolate and sea salt. In small heavy saucepan over low heat, add cream, stirring occasionally, until steaming. Remove from heat. Pour half of hot cream over chocolate. Allow to stand for a minute, then stir until smooth. Gradually stir in remaining cream.
You can garnish it with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, white chocolate (to look like cheese) and/or berries and mint. If you want, you can make a double mixture of the chocolate sauce, save half and spoon on the lasagna warm.
Annie's Dark Chocolate Lasagna
Tags: Chocolate, Cocoa, Dark Chocolate, Italian cuisine, lasagna, pasta
Chocolate, Cocoa, Recipes, Recipes - Dessert, Recipes - Main Course
Good afternoon. I’ve been thinking about a dessert lasagna for a while and found this recipe today in my first net search. It sound much like what I had in mind, but I’ll use it as my start and then amend to make it my own. Anyway, I noticed Dee’s comments here and reviewed the recipe several times to make sure I understood it. Suddenly, it jumped out at me. The recipe seems to call for 2 sauces. The recipe calls for a layer of pasta topped by half the filling, then HALF THE SAUCE, then the chocolate chip/current/nut mixture, a second layer of pasta filling, THE OTHER HALF OF THE SAUCE and the chip/current/nut mixture and the final layer of noodles. Bake and after a cooling off period, serve with topped with warmed sauce. So my question is WHAT SAUCE? I’ve used all the sauce in the lasagna…there is none left, unless I’m supposed to make a second batch of sauce to garnish and pass at the table.
I’m wondering whether the sauce in the lasagna is the problem Dee experienced…served too warm with too much liquid in the lasagna because the sauce was put into it. That make me ask whether the sauce should actually be spread over the filling at all or held until serving. If I don’t put the sauce over the lasagna filling, it would make for a much firmer lasagna and leave me with the sauce to top each serving and extra to put in a sauce boat to pass at the table. Cheers, Tom
Let us see what went wrong. The lasagna isn’t going to be like cake. The photograph was taken after it had been in the refrigerator overnight, that’s why it looks a bit stiff. It’s going to be like lasagna – when you cut it, it will run or slide a bit. The lasagna is going to be fairly soupy looking until it sets. You could try to put it in the refrigerator for an hour and see if that helps. Were the noodles drained completely? Wet noodles could make a huge difference. Let me know! There’s always a way to savage a dessert!
I just made Anne’s Dark Chocolate recipe for dessert tonight, and I am sick! It is just like soup! Something in the recipe is missing. It never set up. The picture looks cake like, with all cheese, chocolate it is more like noodles and liquid. Help!
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