The CEP project is the cradle for Italian computer science. Besides delivering the first machine produced in the country (Macchina Ridotta, 1957), it was the seed from which the future Course on Computer Science (1969, again a first for Italy) will develop. Indeed, since its inception the project managers understood the need of courses teaching the use and the possibilities of the newly built machines. This contribution will focus on the contents of the first courses taught in Pisa in 1957 and 1958, and the somehow surprising mix of theoretical informatics, practical applications and programming languages they contained.