Cooking with...engineers!

Even though the menu is always the same - pasta alla carbonara, Valerian salad with Parmesan cheese, pears and walnuts and tiramisu - our students never seem to have enough of our cooking classes!

The last cooking class we organized took place on June 1st at Navona and 10 students from the Architectural Engineering program took part in it.

These kids are very busy during the day: they have a very tight schedule and we thought that a relaxing cooking class with Simona could be a good way to give them a little break from their demanding classes… and we were right!

As usual, the first thing we prepared was the tiramisu: we broke the eggs and divided the yolks from the whites, we added the sugar and the mascarpone cheese, we whipped the egg whites (or at least we tried to!) and mixed all the ingredients together. In the meantime, we prepared some delicious caffè espresso and we finally assembled the cake.

We went on preparing the salad: we cut the pears and the Parmesan cheese into little pieces, we added the walnuts and then we dressed the salad with salt, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

After almost an hour of work, we all were very hungry and we could not wait for our dinner to be ready! That’s why everybody had a little piece of cheese while cooking…

The last thing we prepared was our great pasta alla carbonara: while bringing some salted water to a boil, we beat some eggs and added some black pepper and some grated Pecorino cheese to them and we cooked some bacon. Once the pasta was ready, we mixed all the ingredients together just being careful not to cook them too much to avoid getting scrambled eggs, instead of pasta alla carbonara! The result was just great!

Everything was delicious and the nice conversation we had while having dinner made our evening even more pleasant!

Italian Republic Day

June 2nd is the Republic Day in Italy: the country commemorates the day in 1946 when Italians voted in a referendum to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. It is a national holiday and shops and offices are closed.

Yesterady morning at 9.30, the president of the republic Giorgio Napolitano presided over the traditional wreath laying ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier on the Vittoriano monument in Piazza Venezia. This was followed by a military parade along Via dei Fori Imperiali and an aerial display by the Italian air force’s “Frecce Tricolori” squadron, which leaves a trail of green, white and red smoke in the colors of the Italian flag.

In the afternoon, the gardens of the Quirinale palace, the official residence of the president of the Republic, were open to the public starting from 3pm and there were performances by military bands.

Lots of our students and some professors went to see the parade along Via dei Fori Imperiali: this was an exceptional occasion for them to know a little more about Italian history and culture!