Dining with a foot in China and another in Sicily

It is already a couple of months ago that an Italian friend of mine returned to Bonn to pay us a visit. We met up in the local vegetarian restaurant for a coffee and some catch up talk on our busy lives. Between a gossip, a complaint on our social life or our studies, she mentioned that she was guest at a couple of good friends and old colleagues. To thanks them for their hospitality, she asked me to prepare a traditional Sicilian dinner for the four of us.
I put together a very simple menu that required minimal cooking to do ahead of time and showing fresh and fragrant flavours typical of my island and, as it is traditional in Italian cuisine, I have divided the starch from the protein course.
The result was a summery four courses menu:

• Fried eggplant rolls with parsley and orange peel & Zucchini rolls with mint and lemon peel;
• Pasta alla Norma;
• Codfish gratiné with an almonds, thyme and black olive crust served with a fragrant orange salad;
• Mini cassata cake with home-made pistachio marzipan.