Chocolate Salami

This fudgy chocolate salami is rich with bittersweet chocolate, espresso, hazelnuts, and crunchy biscotti. Weirdly convincing and very delicious!

Why I Love It

While entirely unintentional, this chocolate salami is a total prankster. It genuinely looks like a real salami in the fridge and the first time we made it, the kids and I completely got my husband with it.

The wrinkled surface, long shape, and little white flecks running through the dark chocolate are shockingly convincing. Except this version is much better because, well, it’s chocolate.

The slices are rich and silky with little bits of roasty hazelnut crunch, crisp biscotti, and a subtle hit of espresso running through everything. It’s sweet, but not too sweet, and it’s balanced with the delicate pop of flaky salt.

I love keeping one in the fridge to slice into throughout the week, but it’s also such a fun thing to bring to dinner parties or picnics since you can make it entirely ahead of time. And it always gets people talking!

I use biscotti crumbs and hazelnuts for the mix-ins, mostly because I love the variety of crunch and texture, but it’s flexible. Amaretti cookies, shortbread, pistachios, pecans, even a splash of liqueur all work beautifully here. Sometimes I add orange zest or dried cranberries depending on the season.

The biggest thing is not over-chilling the mixture before shaping. You want it firm enough to hold together, but still soft and pliable enough to mold into smooth logs.

I like this best cold from the fridge, but if you let it sit for a bit at room temperature, the texture softens into something smooth and truffled. Serve it with a hot espresso or a glass of vin santo and some chocolate biscotti and call it dessert!

How to make Italian chocolate salami:

Recipe Tips

Don’t over-chill before shaping. The mixture should feel like fudge. Too cold and it becomes difficult to roll smoothly.

Use good chocolate. Since there are so few ingredients, the flavor of the chocolate really comes through.

Keep the biscotti pieces slightly chunky. I crush the biscotti in a ziptop bag and pull out the pea-sized pea-sized bits (discarding the fine crumbs) for the best texture and most salami-like appearance.

Fold in the flaky salt at the end. This keeps little crunchy bursts of salt intact throughout the salami.

Serve cold or room temperature depending on the texture you want. Cold gives you clean slices and more crunch, while room temperature makes it softer and more velvety.

Roast extra hazelnuts while you’re at it. If you’re skinning your own, make a larger batch and use the rest for this homemade hazelnut butter later in the week.

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