It all started with a peanut butter and bacon sandwich. As I sat chomping on my delicious meal, I began to ponder the sometimes narrow-minted way in which people approach food. Take breakfast, for instance. Why is it OK to eat fried pork products with your pancakes, but the idea of fried chicken or Chinese food for breakfast makes people squeamish? (Both are delicious in the morning by the way; great hangover food.)

So, back to the peanut butter and bacon sandwich. It got me to thinking about a Nutella and bacon sandwich (I tried it; it was a little too sweet), which got me to thinking about all of the other ways in which chocolate can be, and has been, incorporated into savory dishes.

Many people are familiar with mole, a savory Mexican concoction in which roasted chiles and dozens of other ingredients are slowly layered one upon the other, then pureed and cooked down into a richly flavored sauce of unusual depth and character. Some versions of mole contain chocolate (the misconception is that mole always contains chocolate; it sometimes does, but the only real common denominator is the presence of roasted chiles and the slow, layered cooking and pureeing of the ingredients). It's usually paired with some manner of braised or roasted meat and definitely does not fall into the dessert category.

In fact, way back a couple thousand years ago, when the cocoa bean was first discovered by the indigenous folks of South America, it was not consumed as a sweet at all. It was brewed and fermented with cayenne and corn into a bitter, frothy elixir. It wasn't until the Spaniards brought chocolate back to Europe that sugar and vanilla were thrown into the mix.

So in honor of chocolate's decidedly un-sweetened history, and just in time for Easter, I set out to create a (mostly) savory chocolate tasting menu. I enlisted the help of Scott O'Connor, of Lindbergh's Crossing, for wine pairings.

For the first course, I decided to try a curried shrimp bisque. I wanted both the sweet dimension that dried fruit sometimes lends to a curry, and the creamy mouth feel that coconut milk provides. A bit of white chocolate swirled into the long-simmered, pureed bisque did the trick. For this course, O'Connor suggests an off-dry New Zealand Gewurztraminer (more specifically, he says, "Brancott-Patutahi Estate is delicious").

The second course is a salad inspired by the Nutella and bacon sandwich. It consists of a buttery little Gorgonzola-hazelnut wafer topped with a sliver of very dark chocolate and a morsel of crisp bacon, then popped into the oven long enough for the chocolate to turn molten. Paired with a lightly dressed salad of baby greens, the result is the most amazing mouth explosion of nutty, sweet and salty sensations. For this course O'Connor suggests a ripe, round Syrah/Shiraz, "Ravenswood-Icon or something from Australia with lots of fruit."

For the main course, I couldn't resist the urge to resurrect a dish I once made years ago, in which toasted cocoa powder and dried currants are incorporated into a demi-glace to accompany pan roasted loin and braised leg of rabbit. Yes, that's right. Chocolate Easter bunny (it works with chicken, too, if the idea of serving rabbit during the Easter season seems too macabre). For this course, O'Connor suggested a Ripassa from the Veneto of Italy-a mini-Amarone ("Zenato is incredible").

For the finale, I decided that a good ol' classic chocolate dessert was in order. One of the best chocolate cake recipes in the universe was given to me by Susan Tuveson, owner of Cacao Chocolates, in Kittery, Maine. The simple, almost flourless cake is rich enough to stand on its own, and in lieu of a heavy, sweet frosting, Tuveson suggests a simple dusting of cocoa powder and a drizzle of unsweetened blood orange or tangerine reduction. To accompany the gateau au chocolate, O'Connor suggests a late vintage bottle port, such as Warres 1994 Late Vintage Bottle.

Gorgonzola-hazelnut wafers with melting dark chocolate and bacon

(yield: about 2 dozen)

1 cup whole hazelnuts

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 cups crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

4 oz. dark chocolate, cut with a sharp knife into thin shards

6 slices slab bacon, cooked until crisp, cut into one-inch pieces

1. In the work bowl of a food processor, combine the hazelnuts, flour and salt. Process until the hazelnuts are ground very fine and the mixture resembles fine meal.

2. Add the butter and Gorgonzola cheese and process until the mixture forms a dough.

3. Lay a piece of wax paper on the counter. Shape the dough into a log and roll it up in the wax paper, cinching the ends. Refrigerate at least one hour.

4. Preheat oven to 375?? F. Slice the roll into 1/4-inch disks and place the disks 1-inch apart on a non-greased sheet pan. Bake at 375??F for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. While still hot, loosen the wafers from the pan. Top each wafer with a few shards of chocolate and a piece of bacon. Serve immediately, while still warm.

white chocolate-laced curried shrimp bisque

4 tbsp. butter

1 onion, peeled and chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp. garam masala

1 tsp. curry powder

pinch cayenne

2 tbsp. flour

1 lb. Maine shrimp, shells on, heads removed (reserve about 1/3 of the shrimp)

1/2 cup sherry wine

2 or 3 cups water, as needed

1 cup cream

2 oz. white chocolate, chopped

salt and pepper, to taste

1. In a large pot, melt the butter until it begins to bubble and brown. Add the onion, carrots, celery and garlic and cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until the vegetables are quite tender and caramelized.

2. Add the garam masala, curry powder, cayenne and flour. Cook for a minute. Add two-thirds of the shrimp, sherry wine and enough water to cover the ingredients by about an inch. Bring to a boil, then simmer for a half-hour, stirring frequently. While the bisque is simmering, peel the reserved shrimp and set aside in the refrigerator.

3. Puree the bisque and pass through a mesh strainer into another pot, pushing with the back of a spoon to extract as much of the pureed mixture as possible. Return the bisque to the stove, add the cream, and bring back to a simmer. Add the shrimp and stir in the white chocolate. Season with salt and pepper.

gateau au chocolate

1/2 cup (heaping) superfine sugar (plus extra for coating the pan)

10 oz. good-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces (plus extra, for buttering pan)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

5 eggs, separated

1/4 cup (heaping) all-purpose flour

pinch salt

1. Preheat oven to 325??F. Generously grease a 91/2-inch springform pan. Sprinkle with a little sugar and tap out excess.

2. Set aside 3 tablespoons of the measured sugar. Place the chocolate, vanilla, butter and remaining sugar in a large heavy-based pan and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool (do not refrigerate).

3. Beat the egg yolks, one at a time, into the cooled chocolate mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in the flour.

4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Sprinkle the salt and 3 tablespoons of sugar over the whites and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the remaining whites. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and tap the pan gently to release any air bubbles.

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean Transfer to a wire rack, remove the side of the pan and allow to cool completely. Invert onto a serving plate and remove the base. Dust with cocoa powder and serve with a blood-orange reduction, or a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream and some fresh raspberries.