Italian Chocolate Salami Recipe – Easy No-Bake dessert

Easy no-bake Italian chocolate salami made with just 5 ingredients: chocolate, butter, cookies, sugar & milk. Perfect for Christmas and Easter! 

Every Christmas when I was little, growing up in Sicily, my grandmother kept a chocolate salami wrapped in the fridge.

I still remember sneaking into the kitchen to cut off a secret slice before anyone caught me. I just couldn’t wait until after dinner. The kitchen always smelled like melted chocolate for hours after she made it.

This Italian chocolate salami recipe (we call it salame al cioccolato) is still one of my favorite desserts to make every winter.

It’s a no-bake dessert made from melted chocolate, butter, and broken cookies, rolled up and chilled until firm.

Once you slice it, it looks just like a real salami. That’s the whole fun of it!

You only need five ingredients and about ten minutes of hands-on work. The fridge does the rest.

It’s the kind of make-ahead treat that’s perfect for your Christmas table, and it comes back around every spring for Easter too. It can also be made gluten-free or vegan with a few easy swaps (more on that below).

It’s loaded with chocolate flavour and it can be easily made gluten-free or vegan, by making some simple substitutions (scroll down for all the tips).

Why you’ll love this recipe

• No oven needed. Just mix, shape, and chill.
• Only 5 ingredients. Chocolate, cookies, butter, sugar, and milk, most of which is probably already in your kitchen.
• Mostly hands-off. The fridge does most of the work for you.
• Freezer-friendly. Make it weeks ahead and forget about it until you need it.
• Easy to customize. Add nuts, dried fruit, or a splash of liquor, or make it gluten-free or vegan.

What is chocolate salami?

Chocolate salami, or salame al cioccolato, is a classic Italian dessert made from melted chocolate, broken cookies, butter, sugar, and either milk or eggs.

It’s a no-bake treat that’s been passed down through Italian families for generations, the kind of recipe every nonna has her own version of.

Despite the name, there’s no meat anywhere near it. It’s called “salami” simply because of how it looks.

Once the chocolate mixture is rolled into a log, chilled, and dusted with powdered sugar, it really does look like a cured salami sitting on the board!

Chocolate salami is a much-loved Italian dessert, especially around Christmas and Easter, and nearly every region has its own name and small twist on the recipe.

In Piedmont, it’s called “salame del papa” (salami made for the pope) and toasted hazelnuts and a splash of rum or Marsala wine are added in.

In Sicily we call it “salame Turco” (Turkish salami), and sometimes toasted almonds or toasted pistachios are added in.

There are also versions made with egg yolks instead of milk. Today I’ll be sharing the classic chocolate salami without eggs recipe.

Ingredients you’ll need

Here’s what goes into a classic chocolate salami, plus a few notes on why each ingredient matters.

Scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for exact amounts.

• Dark chocolate: Go for high-quality dark chocolate. I like to use 70% dark chocolate, but you can pick your favorite (you can even use white chocolate!).
• Cookies or biscuits: In Italy we use “dry biscuits” (biscotti secchi) which are typically served for breakfast or tea time. Use digestive biscuits, tea biscuits, butter cookies, petit beurre cookies, shortbread biscuits, or simple vanilla cookies.
• Butter: It needs to be soft, not melted, so pull it out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you start.
• Sugar: I use light raw cane sugar, regular sugar works just fine here.
• Milk: Makes an excellent substitute for the eggs in the traditional recipe.

Optional Add-Ins

• Cocoa powder, for dusting the finished log instead of, or along with, powdered sugar.
• Powdered sugar, rolled onto the outside so it looks like the white coating on a real salami.
• A splash of alcohol, like Grand Marnier, rum, Marsala, or brandy, for a little extra warmth. Leave it out if kids will be eating it.
• Roasted nuts, like pistachios, pecans, hazelnuts or almonds add an extra crunch and flavor.
• Dried fruit such as dried apricots, figs or cranberries add a lovely sweetness and pair well with the chocolate.

Vegan Substitutions

This recipe is easy to make plant-based:

Milk → almond milk, oat milk, or soy milk

Butter → coconut butter or your favorite plant-based butter

Cookies → vegan digestive biscuits or vegan tea cookies

How to make chocolate salami

This no-bake dessert comes together in a handful of simple steps, and none of them are difficult.

(The full printable recipe with exact measurements and timing is in the recipe card at the end of this post.)

1. Break the cookies into chunks. Do not crush them.
2. Whisk the softened butter with the sugar.
3. Melt the chocolate, then whisk it with the butter mixture together with the milk.
4. Add the cookie chunks, then stir all the ingredients.
5. Place the mixture on a sheet of parchment paper, and using your hands, shape it into a log.
6. Refrigerate for at least 2- 3 hours, then dust it with powdered sugar.

You can serve it sliced with a spoonful of pastry cream on the side, or bring the whole log to the table on a wooden board for the big reveal.

Tips for the Best Chocolate Salami

A few things I’ve learned after making this recipe more times than I can count:

• Leave extra parchment paper on each end when you wrap the log. It makes twisting and sealing the ends much easier.
• Don’t over-crush the cookies. If you blend them into fine crumbs instead of chunks, the salami turns hard and crumbles when you try to slice it.
• Give the butter enough time to soften. Cut it into pieces and let it sit out for about 30 minutes. It should be soft enough to press with a finger.
• Let the melted chocolate cool slightly before mixing it in. If it’s too hot, it can make the butter mixture greasy instead of fluffy.
• Slice it with a sharp, serrated knife, and wipe the blade clean between cuts for neat slices.
• Let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving. Straight from the fridge, it can be a little too firm to slice cleanly.

Storage tips

Wrapped well, chocolate salami keeps in the fridge for 5 to 6 days, which makes it an easy make-ahead dessert for a busy week.

It also freezes beautifully, which makes it one of my go-to make-ahead desserts for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

Wrap the log tightly in plastic wrap, then a layer of foil, and freeze it for up to a month.

You can also slice it first and freeze the slices in a single layer between sheets of parchment, so you can pull out just a few at a time.

To defrost, move it to the fridge the night before you need it, then let it sit at room temperature for about an hour before slicing.

How to serve chocolate salami

The classic way to serve chocolate salami is sliced into rounds, with a small spoonful of orange curd or Italian pastry cream on the side. It’s rich, so thin slices go a long way.

For a fun presentation, bring the whole log out on a wooden board, the way you would a real charcuterie board, and slice it at the table.

It also makes a lovely edible gift. Wrap a small log in parchment paper and kitchen twine, and hand it to a neighbor or teacher during the holidays.

It pairs beautifully with a small cup of espresso after a big holiday meal. You can also serve it with fresh raspberries or a small handful of pomegranate seeds for a nice pop of color.

More Italian holiday desserts

If you’re building out a holiday dessert table, a few more classics are worth adding. Amaretti cookies and Italian butter cookies are both easy to make ahead, and they’re always the first to disappear off a cookie tray.

My clementine cake bars are another easy make-ahead option if you want something a little different from chocolate.

For a bigger spread, round things out with a classic tiramisu made without eggs, a simple Italian apple cake, or a 3-ingredient ricotta cheesecake if you want something a little lighter on the table.

Did you try this recipe?

Please let me know how you liked it! Leave a comment below and share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #thepetitecook!

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