Chocolate Pasta: Spoiler Alert!

About 5 hours before the Atonement Day was about to end we, or more precisely, I was planning on how to festively break the fast. My husband wouldn't hear about food, 26 hour fast is daunting, we also have 2 small children to feed, besides I normally spend my day on the backround of the Food Network TV. The idea of more thoughts on food was unbearable to him.

Ultimately, I had to make a choice, which danced between a pasta with smoked oisters and crab meat in the red sause ( you use a sause from a can and add smoked oisters and crab meat from your pantry. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley/cilantro. Sshhh!, I know shell fish is not very kosher oriented, but I asked for my forgiveness during the Atonement Day and I was on my 20th hour of fast) and that chocolate pasta that I was raving about in my previous post here. The plan for the chocolate pasta was initially festive to be served in the company of a couple of friends, but as the circumstances occured, indeed, everything turns out for the best, meaning that I decided to serve this decadence and savour it in the privacy of our own fast breaking, which ultimately saved us a social embarrassment if it was to be served to the guests.

The pasta looks very appetising in its package, dark brown, little lacy swirles. When cooked it loses its crisp look. I made it al dente, strictly following the directions. To accompany that I made a raspberry syrop ( fresh raspberries simmered with a bit of red wine & brown sugar), folded it into a mixture of plain and raspberry yogurts with lemon zest and topped the whole creation with toasted walnuts and crambled Oreo cookie ( held the white part). Sounds Iron Chef delicious, right?

Well,  what do you know...After the raspberry sauce hit the pasta it turned its chocolate look into a dirty one. The pasta contains cocoa powder, but no sugar, so if you have a sweet tooth ( and I have  sweet teeth, all 30 of them, well, 2 wisdom teeth were pulled years ago), sugar is missing. No matter how sweet the raspberry creation was, the pasta needed something....chocolate...sweet chocolate. So, I tried to fix it with my 4 year old's chocolate syrop, he was asleep, he wouldn't know. It helped the matter a little. My husband's constructive critisism gradually digressed from: "it's OK" at the 1st bite, proceeded to "it's not that great" and finally fell flat at: "I'd grab something else, even though I'm full, but I have such a bad taste in my mouth".

Both of us nodded in agreement of saving our culinary respect by not serving this festive creation to anyone, especially after such a successfull Rosh Hashana dinner ( Jewish new year), where I vowed the guests with Giada's roasted bell pepper soup, Ina's Panzanella salad and the Epicurious easy chocolate mousse, that got me numerous compliments and 3 marriage proposals (hold your celebrations: no rings and all made in my husband's presense, therefore, we both kindly declined).

Now, after much disappointment at our much anticipated culinary experience, I am the one who bears the guilt of spoiling the festive yom kippur fast! You don't say...