Cocoa pasta with mushroom-and-rabbit sauce
( Pasta al cacao con coniglio e funghi )

Recipe for cocoa pasta with mushrooms and rabbit

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare all ingredients.
  Bone rabbit and cut its meat into small pieces.
  Clean mushrooms and slice finely as you can see in the photo.
  Clean and chop leek.
  Clean and wash chives and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
• - Prepare pasta sauce.
  Put olive oil and leek in a non-stick frying pan.
  Fry slightly leek on very low heat, stirring now and then, a few minutes.
  Turn up the stove, add rabbit too and let it flavor, stirring now and then.
  Add mushrooms too and let them flavor, stirring now and then.
  Pour in a ladle of hot water, season to taste with salt and cook until cooking liquid is reduced, another ten minutes.
  Once turned off the stove, add chopped chives too and stir with delicacy.
• - Cook cocoa pasta.
  Meanwhile cook cocoa pasta al dente stage following all instructions on the package.
  Drain and transfer in the pan with the sauce.

Just before serving

• - Mix your pasta with its sauce with delicacy on medium heat, a minute.
• - Serve immediately accompanied with a little bowl full of grated Parmesan.
  Everyone will be able to serve himself according to his own taste.

Note

Tips

• - This pasta dish is associated with a children's story suitable for Halloween but all year round too because Bertha The Witch is a character that lives a lot of adventures from January to December.
  This tale may be the protagonist of your table. Print it on white paper and roll it up like a scroll. Put it on the table and read at the appropriate time ;)

Menu planning

• - Cocoa pasta with mushrooms and rabbit is very delicate and so if you want to prepare a full Italian menu, you should be careful to combine it with dishes that must not have a very strong flavor.
  For example, to start your menu I'd suggest assorted fall antipasto. I'd continue with this cocoa pasta dish and and as second course I'd serve turkey rolls or stuffed turkey thigh or saltimbocca alla romana with potatoes. The dessert? the classic apple tart, obviously. This is a menu that can be good for children too, what do you think about it? all links to suggested recipes in the next paragraph!
• - Prepare this dish for your family menu too. Read more below!

Useful links for this recipe

• - If you're interested in other sauces for cocoa pasta, you can read another recipe of mine: cocoa tagliatelle topped with cream and walnuts.
• - I've just suggested some recipes for a fall and winter menu, Italy-style. Among Italian antipastos you can find an assorted platter made with not too strong ingredients to avoid to cover pasta flavor.
  Turkey is a tender meat that everybody likes: taste turkey rolls! or you prefer stuffed turkey thigh? both are recipes of mine according to the Italian style!
  On the contrary saltimbocca alla romana is an authentic Italian recipe!
  Finally, the dessert: apple tart!
• - Interested in our directory dedicated to Halloween? here are the stories of Bertha The Witch too!

Healthy eating

• - It is generally thought that cocoa pasta is hypercaloric but cocoa concentration is only 5% in industrial pasta. Therefore, it is not the ingredient cocoa to make calories rise but the way in which pasta is seasoned. Look at nutrition facts of cocoa tagliatelle topped with cream and nuts to be sure!
  On the contrary calories of my pasta dish are in the standard, so it may be a complete meal, ideal for your family menu too. Complete your meal with seasonal fresh fruit.
• - Fiber per serving: 5,7 grams (daily intake: 23 grams)

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Cocoa pasta with mushroom-and-rabbit sauce "?

My husband and I suggest to pair Rosso di Montalcino (red wine fromTuscany) to this cocoa pasta dish.