Happy birthday

The blog is one year old today (that is if I finish writing this post on time).
I marked it on my Google Calender about a month ago, to make sure I would post something today.
I can't say I have anything new or very interesting to say, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

I just came back from a two week visit in Israel. I've been trying to find deep and profound things to say about this visit, which was in many ways interesting and different, I was there with my girlfriend, Ewa, so I functioned as something between a tourist and a tour guide. It was nice, and probably more exciting than just visiting friends and family, but at the same time it kinda downed on me that it's undoubtedly no longer my home. I guess it's a positive thing, and hopefully means that Berlin, where I am now and where I intend to stay in the near future, is my home.

Visiting Israel did give me chance to reunite with some of my favorite products (and pay insane amounts of money for them - staying in Israel for 17 days cost like 2 months here in Berlin), and, equally important with my pasta machine. This gave me the opportunity to finally make a dish I've been fantasizing about for over half a year. When I was touring and cooking in Italy I spent about a week making fresh pasta, and between ravioli, tagliatelle, fettuccine and more, I made one beautiful pasta called Caramelle , which is basically bonbon shaped pasta. Back there we filled it with ricotta and walnuts.
But I was determined on making it for dessert. I didn't really know what flavors I wanted until the very last minute, but I was very happy with the result*.



Passion fruit Caramelle with strawberry sauce.


For dough:

300g pasta flour.
3 eggs.
1 tsp cinnamon.


For filling:

200g mascarpone.
6 passion fruits.
powdered sugar to taste.
vanilla extract/ vanilla sugar.


For sauce:

500g strawberries.
powdered sugar to taste.


For serving:

Mint.
5 passion fruits.

Preparation:

Dough:

Sieve flour and cinnamon together.
Make a little hill of the flour, create a small well in the middle, and break in the eggs.
Using a fork, gently mix the eggs and the flour, starting just with the center. When incorporated, use your hands to knead it into a unified dough. Roll into a sausage, cover, and let cool for 30 minutes.
Working with a third at a time, work in the pasta machine until as thin as possible.

For caramelle, make ravioli, and then fold both ends one to one side, and then another time to the other side.

Filling:

Mix mascarpone, vanilla and sugar. Add the passion fruit, sieving it through a fine mesh (use a fork to get all the flesh from around the seeds). Let cool for at least an hour.

Sauce:

Using a hand mixer, butcher the strawberries until they become sauce :)
Add powdered sugar to taste.


Cook the caramelle in a lot of boiling water (with 1tbs of salt), cook in batches so they won't stick, and won't cool down the water. It's ready 10 seconds after floating.

Serving:

Spread strawberry sauce on a plate, place 3 caramelle, empty half a passion fruit on top, add mint.


*I must admit that I'm still not an expert in making pasta, and even though flavor-wise this dish was great, my caramelle were a bit too tough around the edges, where the 'twist' is. Next time I'm going to make it with ravioli instead, sacrificing some of the wow factor...