Max Hatzoglou
Marian College year 10 Italian pupils received a special visit from 2017 Australian Masterchef contestant Pia Gava, who shared her Italian cooking expertise through making a pasta dish.
The pupils got hands-on cooking the dish alongside Gava as she explained the history and context behind the Italian dish, ‘cavatelli pasta with zucchini, garlic, olive oil and pangrattato from scratch’.
Marian College Italian teacher Anna Ciccone said the pupils enjoyed the opportunity to make the traditional dish and hear the stories behind it.
“The pupils were amazing and soaked up the experience,” she said
“Pia exposed them to the making and cooking process, but also the tradition connected to the dish. This was, back in the day, a peasant’s dish because it doesn’t have any eggs or oil, as some pasta’s do.
“This was because being peasants they couldn’t afford anything other than flour and water. And so, using these basic ingredients people needed to be created to make it more exciting and
palatable.
Ms Ciccone said the pupils learnt the relevant grammar and vocabulary before Gava came to the school to make the dish and talk about it.
The Masterchef contestant had grown up in an Italian family and learnt some of the Italian traditions which she has ingrained into her own recipes.
Ms Ciccone also said the experience was a great way for the pupils to learn the language.
“This came about because the course is geared around providing students the opportunity to
learn Italian in an authentic and real-life context.
“Also, because we have a firm belief that a language cannot be learnt in isolation but needs to be exploration in conjunction with the culture and traditions, in this case the history and culture around food.
