Meat with chocolate may seem a risky combination, but there are many recipes that combine them together. In some recipes cocoa is a fundamental ingredient for the success of the dish; the traditional Roman recipe of Coda alla Vaccinara, commonly attributed to Osteria Checchino since 1887, provides as an addition to the sauce a special ingredient, initially kept hidden and revealed later to customers: a teaspoon of bitter cocoa.

But there are many other recipes that combine chocolate and meat.

‘MPANATIGGHI OF MODICA

These crescent-shaped sweets were consumed during the Lent period in the convents. Since it was not allowed to eat meat during that time, the intent was to look for a way to hide its smell and taste.

They mixed the meat with chocolate and almonds, hiding the mixture in a sweet paste, creating a seemingly harmless treat and still succeeding in the consumption of meat.

This recipe is still prepared in Modica, they use beef and mix together with chocolate other spices.

MOLE POBLANO

This Mexican recipe combines a chocolate sauce, the mole sauce, with chicken, and it is said to be a recipe that comes from the Aztecs.

This typical dish of the city of Puebla, in Mexico, is usually prepared for the Dia de los Muertos and for the Mexican Independence Day.

The mole sauce is prepared by mixing dark chocolate with chili, tomatoes, raisins, dried fruit and other spices.

WILD BOAR IN DOLCEFORTE

We are in Tuscany, and the recipe comes directly from the Renaissance. The wild boar stew was seasoned with the Dolceforte sauce based on dark chocolate, raisins, candied fruit, pine nuts and vinegar. This delicious dish, was inevitable in the noble banquets of the time.

The original recipe for Dolceforte sauce, however, was prepared with the remains of some typical Tuscan desserts: panforte and cavallucci. These cakes were chopped and mixed with chocolate with melted butter, raisins, pine nuts and walnuts. All of it was baked in a pan with vinegar.