The kitchen is full of the mouthwatering smells of Italy and the sounds of Italian crowds cheering, but we are far from the Mediterranean.

Instead, this is Tavistock where the town’s favourite Italian son Giovanni Sponziello is hard at work creating a taste of his native village Soliano.C near Lecce, Puglia right down south in the heel of Italy.

This is a good time to be Italian because the cheering is coming from the Cortina Winter Olympics where the medals are pouring in. As Giovanni cooks, Italy’s favourite Fran Lollobrigida skates to her second gold.

Giovanni is well-known in Tavistock for the popular Italian food shop he used to run and demonstrating cooking his homemade dishes in Tavistock Pannier Market.

Ever patriotic, Giovanni is busy crushing garlic, grating Italian hard cheese, splitting cherry tomatoes, chopping and slicing chillies, parsley and broccoli and boiling up pasta to make a red, green and white dish in the shades of the Italian flag.

He will then sit down and enjoy his supper with wife Christine to watch the Winter Olympics, with loyalties split between Team Italy and Team GB.

First, though Giovanni stresses the key points of Italian cooking: “We always have simple ingredients cooked simply and slowly. Flavour is king.

“This is a very basic traditional dish. It’s generic name, La Cucina Podera, means ‘making do’ with what’s left in the fridge and the cupboard. I learned everything from my mother. She was a wonderful cook.”

He heats extra virgin olive oil, adds crushed garlic and chopped red pepper and after a few minutes (without burning the garlic), adds split cherry tomatoes and cooks until soft and releasing juices. Nothing is hurried and the idea is to for a rich background flavour without extreme heat or garlickyness.

Giovanni grates Parmigiano Reggiano (a buttery nutty cow’s milk cheese which tends to sweetness as it matures) and Pecorino (a salty sheep’s milk cheese) into the pan. The tomatoes are pressed to free the juices and parsley stems and a bay leaf added and stirred frequently.

The broccoli is boiled and added and replaced in the same water with 70g per person of Paccheri tubular pasta (which easily absorbs flavours). The pasta must be cooked to al dente texture (not too soft or hard).

Giovanni emphasises: “People think pasta is a main dish in Italy. But it isn’t. Pasta is just another ingredient and has an important role in absorbing the all-important flavours.”

He adds some of the broccoli cooking water (nothing is wasted if it adds to the flavour) to the bubbling evolving sauce along with stock, homemade of course, which might be vegetable (including the basics of carrot, celery and onion) or meat.

Giovanni adds a little pesto, to personal taste, and the jar topped up with oil to preserve it for the next dish.

As the pasta cooks for about 11 minutes, the retired hairdresser gently stirs and mixes (‘manticare’ in Italian) – gradually the veg and sauce resembles a creamy base.

Giovanni finally adds the pasta, simmers all the ingredients for a few minutes and tastes.

He declares: “It’s just perfect. It is full of flavour, with gentle background heat and a tomatoey garlicky richness. My mama would approve.”