Cooking classes and my Tomato sauce

March is starting to look like a pretty busy month. Long time has passed since I had so many deadlines and possibilities to earn some money.
Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that I have started giving cooking classes in my town, Bonn. It took some time for the city (represented by the Volkshochschule) to realize the need of offering public classes in English but once they started I was right there to offer my contribution.
Nothing better than some tasty Sicilian food, right? So I decided to offer two classes delving on Sicilian cuisine (one of them for vegetarians) and so far the answer has been excellent!

Red, White and Green

More or less two month ago, Asha of Fork-Spoon-Knife announced her own challenge: the FSK-Café. Similar to the Paper Chef, the FSK-Café challenge requires us to create two or more dishes with the chosen ingredients. For the first round, Asha chose mozzarella, tomato and basil.
They are everyday ingredients but quite deceptive. It is hard to come up with innovative dishes featuring this Italian trio; salads, pasta dishes, bready ones are those that come up to mind. To make things more challenging, I chose then to stay as far as possible from starches in my dishes and this is what I came up with:

• Mozzarella Lasagna with Tomato brunoise, basil and lemon peel served on a rosemary scented orange carpaccio;

• Fluffy sweet mozzarella curds with candied tomatoes and dark chocolate basil boat served with a tomato caramel sauce.

And here you are how to do them by yourself.

French Kiss: Keep on trying babe! (next time using a mint)

First trial, first failure…No, naturally not at kissing! I’m a master in that, but in making French macarons.
Those little creatures can be really evil! A nice crunchy embossed shell protecting a soft and moist heart of meringue; have two of them and a buttery/chocolaty spread at hand and you are in even. Just like a kiss, you cannot stop at just one. Why showing me the pleasure of sinning if afterwards I have to sin only once, no way! Give me the whole box and look the other way.
These delicate and flavourful flying-saucer like biscuits are a big fashion hit lately. Why? Well, does anybody figure out the reason for fashion craves? My idea is that since they are small and cute everybody fall for them (yes, you are right they are like a kitten but if you find a hair on it oh well… report it to the animal protection).