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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Jason Capps of Bella Sera in Pittsburgh visited Terri Dance’s expressive arts food class at Canfield Village Middle School to demonstrate to the students how make a pasta dish on Dec. 4.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Jason Capps of Bella Sera and expressive arts food teacher Terri Dance served Capps’ pasta dish, Cacio e Pepe, to the seventh-grade students.
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Neighbors | Submitted.Sue Runion of Nemenz IGA demonstrated cookie and cake decorating for the sixth-grade expressive arts food class at Canfield Village Middle School on Dec. 4.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Jason Capps of Bella Sera visited the seventh-grade Canfield Village Middle School expressive arts food class to demonstrate how to make a pasta dish on Dec. 4. Capp’s daughter, Lauren, invited her dad to the class.
By ABBY SLANKER
Canfield Village Middle School students in two of Terri Dance’s expressive arts food class received some special culinary instruction from local chefs on Dec. 4.
Sixth-grade students decorated cookies with Sue Runion, a pastry decorator at Nememz IGA, and seventh-grade students worked with Jason Capps from Bella Sera in Pittsburgh to make a pasta dish. Both Runion and Capps are Canfield parents.
Capps brought in all the ingredients to make Cacio e Pepe for the students.
“The better quality the ingredients are, the better your end result will be when cooking. Using local produce and ingredients is better than using store bought,” Capps told the students.
Capps involved the students in the preparation of the pasta dish, including having a couple of volunteers put the pasta dough through a pasta machine.
Capps gave the students several cooking tips throughout his presentation.
“One thing I always do is clean as I go. It just makes it easier. Also, salting your pasta water is very important. You want it to be like the ocean. It may seem like you are putting in a lot of salt, but it’s really not that much. Water is one of the most important parts of this dish. You use it to make the sauce with a little bit of cheese. You want to cook your pasta al dente, which literally means ‘to the tooth.’ That means the bite should stick on your tooth because it’s a little bit on the raw side. And you can rinse your pasta. Rinsing it in cold water will help it from sticking,” Capps said.
When the dish was ready, Capps and Dance served the students, who liked it very much.
One student claimed, “It’s delicious. I’m going to tell my mom about it and we are going to cook it together.”
Capps had some lasting advice for the students.
“I encourage you to know how to make a couple of dishes before you leave home. When you get to college, macaroni and cheese is good for a minute, but you have to know how to make a good, fresh meal for yourself. Practice before you get out of high school. Mom and Dad won’t always be there to make you dinner,” Capps told the students.
Dance was very appreciative of the parents coming in to visit the classes.
“It is so kind of the parents to come in to our classes. Ron Zenko, the owner of Stonebridge, also came into our sixth-grade class this fall. I really appreciate Mrs. Runion and Mr. Capps taking the time and effort to come visit our classes and sharing their culinary expertise,” Dance said.