Make your own Chocolate pizza

Confidential loves a spurious PR-generated National Week, and National Chocolate Week is one of our favourites. Over at swish city centre Italian San Carlo, they're celebrating it by devising some chocolatey recipes to share with our readers: Chocolate Pizza and Dark Chocolate Chilli Truffles.

Now this Chocolate Pizza isn't of the sort created by The Chocolate Cafe, which is basically chocolate topped with chocolate. This one has a proper pizza base, topped with ricotta cheese, dark chocolate and white chocolate. Think 'pain au chocolate' and it might not seem so bizarre.

San Carlo's executive chef Franco Bellomusto came up with the recipe. He says that it's very popular in Italy, particularly when it's shared at the end of a family meal.

Chocolate Pizza

Ingredients
200g of pizza flour
5g of fresh yeast
1 cup of warm water
½ teaspoon of salt
200g ricotta cheese
75g dark chocolate
60g white chocolate

Cooking time
10 minutes in a very hot oven (280°C).

Method
Mix flour, yeast, water and salt together and kneed to make a dough.

Roll into a flat round to make the pizza base and cook for eight minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Spread the ricotta cheese on the base and grate over the dark chocolate.

Place back in the oven for a further two minutes.

Remove the pizza and grate over the white chocolate to serve.

Dark Chocolate Chilli Truffles

Makes 40

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: five minutes – plus two hours to set

Ingredients
250g good quality dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids)
125ml double cream
1 fresh chilli, halved and deseeded
Knob of butter
Cocoa powder for dusting

Method

Break the chocolate into little chunks and place in a small bowl.

Put the cream and chilli halves in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then turn off the heat and add the butter.

Pour the cream over the chocolate chunks and leave to stand for a few minutes to melt.

Remove the chillies, stir and leave for a few more minutes.

Stir well, cover and refrigerate for at least two hours until set.

Using a teaspoon, scoop out little balls of the truffle mixture and roll in the palm of your hand.

Dip in cocoa powder and store in the fridge for three to four days.

Click here for more information about San Carlo.