sometimes we make our own...

We had the pleasure of hosting several Italians in the last few weeks at Bija Vidyapeeth, but one among them spearheaded two amazing nights of Italian food...

Kamal, the organic chef, learns how to prepare "pasta," which is pizza dough, and seems delighted to discover that it is only marginally more complicated than chapati.

The cooks hauled out this small oven for the occasion, and to feed 20 people, we had to cook many rounds of small pizzas, each decorated with basil, rosemary, onions, garlic, tomatoes, capsicum (peppers - sweet and hot), mushroom, and even fresh mango.

Here is the lovely Sunjay (didgeridoo player extraordinaire) helping with the ongoing cleanup.

Massi, our fearless leader, teaches us the secret ingredient to pizza preparation: the sweat of an Italian.

The next day at lunch, Kamal had realized how happy the pizza had made all of us, and true to his artistic tendencies, he created a plate of pizza all by himself. And oh, how delicious it was!

Here is a sprouted mung dahl salad, also by Kamal, the artistic chef.  I didn't get a photo of it, but last night, his creations on the vegetable plate included an elephant carved from potatoes.

Seeing all the fun in the kitchen, we Canadians decided to contribute a recipe: apple crumble.  Yum.

Several days later, Massi took the reigns again and organized a gnocchi party.  Here, Giulia, Rachel, and Raquel prepare the pasta.

Massi takes over :-).

The finished product with both spinach and regular gnocchi, and an indian-inspired tomato sauce.  All local, all fresh, all made from scratch.  So for those who were wondering based on the last post about how we were coping, here is some photo reassurance of at least a variety of foods... Additionally, I've been trying to spend more time in the kitchen helping prepare the regular meals, encouraging that we leave the skin on the potatoes, and campaigning tirelessly for more greens.  Here's to health!