Everything Giada De Laurentiis Cooks in a Day [Exclusive]

Giada De Laurentiis’ first solo cooking adventure was cherry-picked. Cobarino cherry tomatoes, a tiny and sweet varietal, are the secret to her family’s signature pomodoro sauce, and they are such an integral ingredient that her parents imported them from Italy. Her simple recipe is only five ingredients, takes less than 30 minutes, and has been a go-to for decades. 

“Simple ingredients can really wow your senses both visually and when you taste them — that’s what Italians do,” the Food Network chef and cookbook author tells The Kitchn. She also shared how layers of texture and flavor are what make food satisfying, whether it’s savory, sweet, or both.

“Desserts and with salads, those are the two things people don’t really consider layering in textures, and that’s always been my beef!” she exclaimed. “Even with pastas, your mouth has to have different sensations to actually crave things.”

One of her favorite ways to layer up is with crunch. Her morning avocado toast gets a sprinkle of flaxseed, salads get crispy rice, and her Lemon Raspberry Cake has crushed-up Loacker quadratini wafer cookies. For the brand’s 100th anniversary, De Laurentiis puckered up her sour cream pound cake into a bright, zesty, lemon-filled (with juice and zest) sheet cake that “has a nice sponginess and holds up well.” It’s sliced crosswise to make two layers, and inside is a “vibrant, beautiful, tangy” fresh raspberry cream cheese frosting and crushed-up lemon and raspberry quadratini wafers.

De Laurentiis has been in love with Loacker wafers her whole life; in fact, her parents imported them just like they did with those special cherry tomatoes. “My mom bought chocolate hazelnut quadratini in giant bags from Italy so I could have them in my lunch box every day,” she recalls fondly. These days, she tucks them into her carry-on while traveling — “they don’t get crushed,” she promises — as she’s often eating on the go.

For this edition of Cooking Diary, Giada De Laurentiis walks us through her go-to meals to make, her favorite pasta, and the easiest way to add more flavor to a dish.

I’m sipping some chicken broth with collagen powder. I always have homemade broth in the freezer in big silicone Souper Cubes so I can just pop out what I want and heat it up. I haven’t had a lot of time for prepping and cooking because I’m traveling so much, so I order broths from Brodo by Chef Marco Canora in NYC. I used to start my day with a couple of espressos, and I realized over time that it makes me feel jittery and blah. Instead of espresso, I start my day with broth. I mix in some Truvani collagen powder and, to be honest, I don’t know if it’s a gimmick. Ask me when I’m 80 and we’ll see if it worked!

I used to start my day with a sweet pastry like a chocolate croissant dipped into espresso. When I turned 50, I realized I couldn’t handle the sugar spike anymore and changed to my collagen broth routine. After that, I’ll move on to avocado toast and coffee. I sprinkle Maldon flaky salt all over the avocado and don’t completely schmear it smooth — I like chunkiness and texture. I add flaxseeds for crunch. If not toast, I make buckwheat cereal with almonds, olive oil, salt, and flaxseeds.

I love a salad with shredded cabbage, kale, carrots, sunflower seeds, almonds, and parsley. Sometimes I add crispy rice, and I’ll always have a little bit of protein like chicken or whatever I have left over. I also love dandelion greens with quinoa and garbanzo beans. If you like arugula, you will love dandelion — just chop it up really finely for the right texture. I make a big container of my All-in-One Parmesan dressing from Super-Italian, which is really simple and easy to use all week long. It has a lot of basil, and Parmesan is the key to make it a little creamy.

Dinner is whatever my 17-year-old daughter wants, based on her mood. Often it’s Sheet Pan Chicken Parm or my Chicken Piccata Meatballs, which have chopped capers inside for brininess and saltiness. And I can guarantee she will love them and they are speedy to make.

A basic pomodoro with little cherry tomatoes — datterini or corbarino — that are super sweet. My parents’ pantry always had imported Italian everything, and those are the types of tomatoes that they liked — they weren’t huge San Marzano people. I know people love San Marzano, but that’s not what I grew up on. I grew up on the little baby canned cherry tomatoes from the Amalfi Coast. I would put a whole peeled red onion — my mom’s preference of onion — in the middle, the tomatoes around it, and cook it down in olive oil for about 15 minutes. Then I’d add a small piece of Parm rind and some basil and cook it again for another 10 minutes. Remove the onion and then that’s it — toss it with the pasta and you’re done!

Salt and lemon are the best flavor enhancers. You can do a lot with just those two ingredients. People don’t season their food properly because they think it’s going to be too salty. I find the things most cooks miss are salting their food and tasting as they go. It enhances the flavors that are already there, and it’s the simplest fix.