Chocolate Salami

I remember making one of these with nutella once when I was small.  It was from one of the first cookbooks I've ever owned, and it was just a thin hardcover book filled with nutella recipes.  I remember being in my grandmother's kitchen in their seaside house and mixing the digestive biscuits with the nutella and butter... This must've been at least 10 years ago since I haven't been to that house since my grandfather passed away.   It's funny how we have such vivid memories of the most random events.

This is making me rather nostalgic.  You know those stereotypical big Italian families that spend a lot of time together?  That was us every summer in Southern Italy at the seaside house.  I never really appreciated it when I was younger.  It was always my grandparents, my aunts and their families, plus our family, so it was 14 people going to the beach together, or dining out in restaurants and at home with a ridiculous amount of good food and good laughs.  Then in 2003 my grandfather passed away and we stopped going to the seaside house. 

Things deteriorated even more after my grandmother had a stroke a few years later... and then she passed away this summer.  It was only then did we all finally get together again, the 12 of us, for lunch.  It was my cousin's 18th birthday, and it was the first time in years that we were all together and probably one of the last times.  Here's my big Italian family.  Excuse the bad quality, the waiter was absolutely useless. 

I made the chocolate salami for the weekly Psychology Society lunches, and used melted chocolate instead of nutella.  And I added a bit of almond extract, which adds a really nice touch to it.  Try adding rum or vanilla or spices like cinnamon or chili, or maybe coconut milk hmm. 

Recipe adapted from Giallo Zafferano 
Ingredients
200g good quality dark chocolate
150g good quality butter, softened at room temperature
300g digestive biscuits
1/2 tsp almond extract
100g sugar
2 eggs

Method
Break up the pieces of chocolate, place them in a bowl and melt over a double boiler (i.e. put the bowl over a small pot of simmering water.  The bowl should not come in contact with the water, so not too much water in the bowl).  Leave to cool
Meanwhile, mix the sugar into the butter in a bowl with a spatula and mix in the eggs and almond extract
Mix in the cooled chocolate (not so cool that it hardens obviously).
Break the digestive biscuits into pieces and fold that into the chocolate mixture
Put the mixture onto a large sheet of parchment paper, roll it up and twist the ends
Place in the fridge for at least 2.5 hours to harden
Open up and slice into pieces to serve