Has anyone made dessert pasta?

[cakedecorator1968]

Hi everyone,

I would like to try making a dessert pasta.

Off the top of my head I'm thinking a chocolate cannelloni with mascarpone mousse, a raviolli with hazelnut filling, and some other shape on a plate with some nice sauces and fruit.

My main question is: Has anyone tasted this kind of dessert and what was the texture like?

I don't exactly know the beast approach on making the dough, should I be looking for a cooked or non-cooked recipe.

Have a nice day in your kitchens!

BB

[metropastrykid]

hi.

i haven't made it personally, but have tasted it in nyc restaurants. at gramercy tavern, i had a cannelloni filled with pears and ricotta with thyme ice cream. i didn't like it very much. however, johnny iuzzini @ jean george does a chocolate pasta with chocolate goat cheese that seems more apealing. there's a recipe for some kind of dessert pasta in charlie trotter's dessert book.

cheers,

mathew

[Redsugar]

Pasta desserts – now that is an intriguing concept! I have made white-chocolate ravioli stuffed w/ a hazelnut filling. I rolled the dough over my Raviolamp-24 mould

("apparecchio per la rapida confezione di ravioli e dolci").

I’ve made Jacques Pépin’s Pasta Cake, but that’s a savoury item.

On first look, I found a Chocolate Pasta recipe (in a Nika Hazelton book) by Dr. Giuliano Bugialli: 4 level Tbsps of cocoa powder are added to a basic 4-egg pasta dough. You could roll out that dough and start brainstorming for ideas.

Nicely sauced Angel-hair pasta would no doubt be appropriate, when used (sparingly) on some plated desserts. Perhaps ziti could be used in a pudding?

[Wendy DeBord]

I did a chocolate raviolli years ago. I wasn't crazy about it because of the texture..........I hand rolled it and it was thicker then ideal.........plus I served it cold.

I think today I could do it much more successfully. If I did a noodle like a raviolli I'd serve it warm with a warm dessert soup/sauce. Maybe even fry it. Wrap a choc. truffle in chocolate pasta (or a strongly fruit flavored pasta) or put fruit inside like a filled wonton, maybe coat the wrapper with something too- then fry.

I like the idea of making a cannelloni where your filling is more generous.

[Matsu]

I made banana wontons a while back for a dessert special.. Can prep hours ahead of time, then deep fry to order and roll in cinnamon sugar. You could serve them with different sauces like mango and chocolate. Also good with ice cream!

This is probably not what you were thinking about but have you ever had a noodle kugel? It's a great comfort food - along the lines of a bread pudding. Can use raisins, currants, apples or cranberries, etc.

Edited August 31, 2004 by Matsu (log)

[andiesenji]

Quite a few years ago I made a dessert - a cake - which the Frugal Gourmet did on his show. I had taped it and wrote down the ingredients and made the cake, which was delicious.

Unfortunately I lost my notes on the recipe and can't find the tape on which I recorded it.

I recall that it was a recipe supposedly related to Catherine de Medici (ancient quisine) and I tried to find a reference to it in his cookbooks and to other cookbooks but wasn't successful and forgot about it until I read the title of your topic.

It is a spectacular cake, more of a confection that actual cake, and I made it with home made angel hair pasta.

As I recall it contained cream and a lot of eggs, chestnuts and spices but other than that and the pasta, my mind is a blank.

My great grandmother, who kept extensive notes in her journals of her travels, made many references to dishes she came across in Italy, France and Spain, especially during the 1860s, 70s and 80s.

She made notes about the ingredients but few notes about the methods, probably because most cooks of that era knew how to do some of the things that are such a mystery to us now.

There was a chestnut and fig "pie" made with farfalle that had been cooked in a light syrup instead of water that she and our cook recreated. I can remember that the "extra" pasta was allowed to dry and we kids snacked on it.

Somewhere in my vast collection of cookboks is a little cookbook on pasta that includes recipes "from start to finish" - - including desserts with pasta.

I will look for it this evening when I get home.

[Redsugar]

"Sinclair" -- I too made the chocolate ravioli only once. It wasn't disastrous, but needed some modifications. Now, where oh where, is that recipe?

Andiesenji – your charming remarks re your great grandmother's notes make me hungry for travel to old-World Europe. (Not that I ever require additional incentive for gastronomic escapades.) Thanks!

Pastira

5 large eggs

1½ cups granulated sugar

1 pound Ricotta cheese

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons butter

¼ pound fine egg noodles

Beat eggs & sugar; add Ricotta, milk, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly.

Cook macaroni, drain, put in large mixing bowl and melt butter over top. Add egg/Ricotta mixture, stirring in thoroughly. Pour into buttered 8- x 2-inch pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes at 350° F. Let cool, then refrigerate before serving.

Edited August 31, 2004 by Redsugar (log)

[amccomb]

I've never made a dessert pasta, but I tasted one at a restaurant. I thought it was awful. It was chocolate ravioli with a chocolate ricotta filling. The dough was watery, rubbery, and tasteless. The filling didn't have enough flavor to make it past the pasta dough. The sauce was a very mild creme anglaise, which was good, but not enough to save the dessert.

At the time, I had thought that maybe toasting or frying the ravioli would have helped. Now I am thinking the dough would have needed some work, too. If the dough had been a bit more cookie-like, with enough sugar added to the dough to give it a crisp and chewy texture, and the filling had had more flavor - maybe a truffle-like center, and the creme anglaise had another accent sauce, like orange or raspberry, it could have been a fun and tasty dessert.

I think for a more mild filling like sweetened ricotta or marcapone, the fried wontons already suggested, dusted with a bit of powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar with a fruit or chocolate sauce would be nice. Or, to have the fruit inside - maybe a cherry and rosemary filling with a port reduction along with a little drizzle of creme fraiche, or perhaps a fig/date combo with a cinnamon, honey, and yogurt sauce.

[Mottmott]

Think kugel. There must be a hundred, maybe a thousand versions of this noodle dish. Some savory, some dessert.

[Kapuliperson]

A friend of mine made this caramel filled ravioli which we ate with ice cream. It was really good, but the texture wasn't all that great.

[Wendy DeBord]

It was really good, but the texture wasn't all that great.

Thats it in a nut shell. That's why I'd serve it warm if I ever did it again. Or fry it to change it's texture.

[Suzanne F]

Fred Plotkin's The Authentic Pasta Book has some pastas filled with fruit, in the shape of wrapped candies, and so on. Don't be put off by a guy named Plotkin writing about "authentic" pasta; he's done some really good work in this and other books.

[chefpeon]

I saw a real cool looking dessert in Pastry Art and Design once.

Looked really beautiful, but I'm not sure about the taste.

The pastry chef had a colorful fruit like concoction on top of "glass noodles",

which I believe were actually gelatin sheets re-hydrated in some sort of sugar water (or syrup), and then cut to look like clear noodles. Really neat, appearance-wise.

[mckayinutah]

I saw a real cool looking dessert in Pastry Art and Design once.

Looked really beautiful, but I'm not sure about the taste.

The pastry chef had a colorful fruit like concoction on top of "glass noodles",

which I believe were actually gelatin sheets re-hydrated in some sort of sugar water (or syrup), and then cut to look like clear noodles. Really neat, appearance-wise.

←

I know exactly what you are talking about chefpeon. The dessert was sort of like clear noodles. It didn't look that appealing to me, as there was no color to it and I don't remember there being anything else of color on the plate with it or anything that would provide taste, for that matter. I believe the PC's name was Christine Chang of Clementine, but again I am just guessing from memory.

It actually reminded me of the sticky stuff that is sometimes left on heavier duty envelopes, the stuff that you would roll up in your hand and then flick at someone, as if it was an actual booger ( when I was a kid that is, not nowadays )

Jason

[chefpeon]

The dessert was sort of like clear noodles. It didn't look that appealing to me, as there was no color to it and I don't remember there being anything else of color on the plate with it or anything that would provide taste, for that matter. I believe the PC's name was Christine Chang of Clementine, but again I am just guessing from memory.

Yep, I think you're right......I've kept all my issues of PA&D, but I'm too lazy to search through all of them. To me, the noodles were very visually appealing, but I just kept thinking....."yipes...pure gelatin".......that sort of put me off. I've never been a big jello fan anyway. I also suffered horrors in culinary school when we had to make things in aspic. I don't know.....it kinda grosses me out in a way. I like to use gelatin in small amounts and not think too much about its origins......or else I kind of "wig out". Weird, huh? But, that's me.

[chromedome]

I could see perhaps using transparent rice noodles instead of sliced gelatine sheets. Maybe soak them in a light syrup, or poach them, as needed. That would probably work.

I've made a chocolate "ravioli" consisting of thinly-rolled cocoa shortbread, cut into squares and laboriously hand-filled with ganache. I served them warm (not hot) from the oven with a vanilla anglaise and some raspberry coulis. They were pretty good, but not really "pasta" I suppose. Just a reasonable hand-drawn facsimile, so to speak.

My wife's grandmother, a Mennonite, makes dessert varenike (perogies) from the normal dough, but filled with cherries or plums according to what's in season. They're served in a simple sauce of reduced cream, with a sprinkling of sugar. Damn, they're good!

You've got me thinking, though. I expect that if I was to make a basic egg pasta, and used confectioner's sugar instead of flour for the rolling, it would probably be sweet enough to do the job without mucking about changing the recipe. Perhaps I'd fill them with fruit purees, or fresh fruit lightly poached (blanched, basically) in a light syrup then drained.

Hmmm. Lots of possibilities. Gonna have to give this some thought, there's a competition in April that I'm thinking of entering. That might be a fun dessert to do...

[YKL]

umm ... not sure how helpful this will be but wanted to say that the restaurant we visited a couple of weeks back had strawberry lasagne as a dessert ..

there had been a running joke that evening about a friend who has a lasagne cookbook .. whereby the idea was stretched so that by the time you got to the dessert section, basically it was just layered food - so even tiramisu qualified!

so we expected some sort of layered dessert but apparently the chef makes a vanilla flavoured pasta, and then layers it with strawberries and possibly cream?

we weren't adventurous that night - but my friend intends to try at some stage - will let you know if she does ...

[CompassRose]

A different take on it is the Middle Eastern or East Indian dessert pastas. I've had a Middle Eastern thing that was like a fried "cake" of thin noodles, all sticky with honey syrup. It was good, sticky, sweet, oily, served at room temperature.

I've also made Indian ones, which are more like vermicelli "puddings," usually flavoured with rosewater and cardamom, sprinkled with pistachios.

And of course kugel is yummy!

My mother used to make plum and apple dumplings, from German potato-dumpling dough, which is pretty much like gnocchi dough -- served warm, with cinnamony sauce.

[andiesenji]

A different take on it is the Middle Eastern or East Indian dessert pastas. I've had a Middle Eastern thing that was like a fried "cake" of thin noodles, all sticky with honey syrup. It was good, sticky, sweet, oily, served at room temperature.

This was probably shredded filo or phylo dough.

You can buy it frozen in most middle eastern markets and it is very handy to use for confection-like pastries.

You can make tiny "birds nests" with it, fill the center hollow with marzipan or with coarsly ground pistachios, then drizzle it with honey or rose-flavored syrup and bake it in a slow or low oven until just lightly colored. It should not be brown, just a darker tan.

You form these in a mini muffin tin, non-stick, so they old their shape.

I don't have a recipe, I simply assemble it and bake it till it looks right to my eye. Unless you burn them you really can't do it wrong.

[hathor]

There's a Cantonese noodle dish that sounds a little odd, but its really, really good. Your basic Chinese cooked noodle is pan fried so it is a crispy pancake, then you add a little sugar and sweet vinegar. That's all it is, but I would beg for it when I went to a certain restaurant in Hong Kong.

[andiesenji]

Here is a recipe from Mario -

a pasta cake.

[andiesenji]

And here are several pasta based desserts or confections.

Enjoy!

I am still looking for that recipe for the renaissance cake made with pasta. So far I have skimmed through 27 tapes. What a drag compared to DVDs.

[PastryLady]

The chef I am going to work for in a week actually was making one today. Rice fettuccini type noodles with a wonderful red wine super reduction (thick and syrupy). I forget which type of wine was used, but he said it was really nice and when I tasted it, it was so rich that it tasted like a fantastic port, but he assured me it wasn't. He cooked the rice noodles in pineapple juice and told me that if you make it in a simple syrup the noodles get too slimy.