Tortelloni with feta and herbs, NOT gardening, and more cupcake demos

iPhone art by Arantxa Zecchini Dowling©

Well, it is Sunday and it is raining again! I really need to work in my garden and these wet weekends are not helping. My seedlings are coming up though, I will sell some at the Italian Festival in Auckland on October 9, I have this Italian pumpkin, some cavolo nero, borlotti, Venice runner beans, Genovese basil (giant) and San Marzano tomatoes, so if you are planning an Italian veggie garden this year come to the Italian Festival :-). And now for a fun pasta project to do with kids on a rainy Sunday!!!

Tortelloni with feta and herbs

For the fresh pasta recipe just click here, for instruction on how to roll the pasta with a pasta machine click here, and to fold the tortellini just look at the pictures below. The filling was improvised: a bit of feta cheese, some breadcrumbs, and a few chopped herbs (Italian parsley, chives, basil, but anything goes). 

 Also, yesterday Arantxa and I went to Milly's for a cupcake demo, and I completely forgot to take photos! I just remembered when we were packing to leave, and I took the photos of the leftover cupcakes, Arantxa was going to a birthday party in the afternoon and she took them there. The birthday girl's parents were so impressed that they gave her a box of chocolate to thank her :-).

The miniature cupcakes went to her brother Max, he loves tiny cupcakes! Next appointment is at Arcadia Bookshop on October 1st. It is a real cupcake month, even if the book is not only about cupcakes, this seems to be what girls really love! And Arantxa has been drawing lots of cupcakes on my iPhone too :-). Are you a cupcake person? 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini, Artwork by Arantxa Zecchini Dowling ©