Chocolate pasta

My family and I watched spellbound as Nigella Lawson cooked up chocolate pasta and whipped up a butterscotch sauce which she poured over her penne, then spooned it into a bowl and tucked into it, announcing that this was the meal you had when you couldn't decide whether you wanted sweet or savoury for dinner. Well, you can bet your bottom dollar she didn't eat more than a spoonful of that pasta, judging from her recently slimmed down look. And b, if you are contemplating a bowl of chocolate pasta for your dinner you are in urgent need of advice from a dietitian. Still I am intrigued and decide to make it as an alternative pudding. I use this word literally. It takes me a while to track down the cocoa penne shells but I find them, boil them up in a saucepan, then make my Nigella butterscotch sauce. I pour it over my pasta, look at it for a moment, then pull out some macadamia nuts which I roast, chop and scatter over the pasta. Then I go totally over the edge and lose all perspective as I come across some marshmallows, which I chop up and use as a garnish. I serve this to my disbelieving family as a dessert. This, make no mistake, is a pudding. It is a proud contender, knocking the socks off its more traditional competitors. And judging from the reaction from the family, all of whom were to be found minutes later sprawled helplessly over the sofas like beached whales, it needs to be eaten in small doses. Is it weird, eating pasta as a dessert? Not if you're Jewish and raised on lokshen pudding, essentially pasta, butter and raisins. Will I make it again? In about a year. When the family has got over this lot.