Pasta for dessert

Several years ago my mother bought me some chocolate pasta. Yes, chocolate pasta. I wasn't sure what to make of it. Or with it, for that matter... I love chocolate, but I just couldn't figure out what I would do with chocolate pasta... Turns out the stuff is a lot of fun to play with! I made chocolate kugel, which was a rich dessert we all enjoyed! So the original packages were used and enjoyed, so new stuff was purchased.

This afternoon I was grumpy and looking for something to do to cheer me up. I found my chocolate pasta and decided to do something with it. I didn't have any ricotta cheese, so I couldn't make a kugel again... And I remembered that the pasta itself actually didn't have too strong of a chocolate flavor, so I knew I would have to make something what would carry the pasta well. Having just made macaroni and cheese, it occurred to me that I could make a cream sauce. True, I had only ever made cream sauces for savory dishes, but I figured I could wing it and come up with something sweet and dessert-y...

I started the sauce as usual. Melt the margarine, add the flour, make a roux.

I then added the milk - well, soy milk. So far, nothing new. But this is where things usually turn savory. Normally I add spices and cheese and turn this into a sauce for mac and cheese. But this was for dessert... I added white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon. This sauce looked and smelled amazing! It also thickened up beautifully. I used to wonder what was meant by "coats the back of a spoon." Well, this sauce did just that, and I was very excited!! The only problem now was being patient... I still had dinner to eat. And make, for that matter...

Dinner made, eaten and cleaned up, it was finally dessert time!! I served bowls of chocolate pasta drizzled with warm brown sugar-vanilla sauce and sprinkled with milk chocolate shavings. Wow, was this yummy! Weird as it may seem, chocolate pasta is well worth trying, and makes for a delicious, versatile dessert choice!!