‘You want the real deal, you gotta come to me’

For the “Italian Diva,” fresh pasta means mixing eggs and flour, rolling a soft ball of dough on the counter, passing it through a pasta roller and cooking the noodles at home.

What it is not, Dedee Royale says, is buying pre-made refrigerated ravioli, or even worse, boxes of dry macaroni from the store shelf.

“I cook every night,” Royale said, sitting at the dining table in her Wareham home. “I only eat fresh.”

Royale now teaches cooking lessons in her kitchen after a lifetime of work as a cook, business owner and stage performer, she said. She started offering lessons, which focus on Italian cooking, in the fall of last year after she moved to her Wareham home from New Jersey.

She teaches a few lessons each week to an intimate crowd — five people, the most that can join her at her dinner table — and educates people on how to find fresh ingredients and read product labels.

The kinds of dishes vary, but each lesson includes a five-course meal: antipasto, pasta, focaccia, main course and dessert.

The Diva, who has familial ties to Sicily, Naples and Milan, often teaches meals close to her heart, inspired by southern Italy.

“The real Italian foods come from the South,” Royale said.

Familiar dishes like eggplant parmigiana, fresh focaccia, chicken saltimbocca and spicy shrimp fra diavolo are on the menu, but so are other regional offerings. Royale sometimes teaches people how to cook cannelloni, which are similar to manicotti, and braciole, a beef-stuffed roll.

A few times a month, Royale offers classes on true Neapolitan pizza, she said — no preservatives included.

Royale said she hasn’t seen many Italians in the area, but she does see some Italian men coming to her lessons to learn how to make familiar food from home.

Her lessons generally run for about three and a half hours, the chef said, between the cooking and eating portions of the night. Lessons cost $69, and Royale said often people reserve cooking lessons for date nights, birthdays and other special occasions.

She provides all the ingredients and tools students will need, she said, but the dinner portion is BYOB.

Those interested in reserving lessons by Royale can contact her via phone, email or on her Facebook page. Her phone number is 786-316-2638, and her email address is theitaliandiva77@gmail.com.