Giada De Laurentiis’ Important Components for Mediterranean Cooking

Italian-American chef, Meals Community star, and Oceania Cruises Culinary Advisory Board co-chair Giada De Laurentiis calls the Mediterranean residence. She grew up in Rome and most just lately visited Ischia and Sardinia, two hidden gems she recommends experiencing earlier than they get too standard. “They’re each spectacular,” she says. “They each really feel actually untouched and wild.”

The world traveler joined us on the 2025 Meals & Wine Traditional in Aspen to display a recipe at her A Style of the Mediterranean, offered by Oceania Cruises seminar. “The Mediterranean weight loss program has gained a lot worldwide recognition for a motive. It’s constructed on the muse of utilizing actually good, easy substances to make extraordinarily flavorful dishes,” De Laurentiis tells Meals & Wine. “That mentality has formed the whole lot I’ve accomplished in my profession within the kitchen.”

She ready her signature Lemon Spaghetti, served with a Lemon-Thyme Prosecco cocktail, a Ricotta and Summer time Mostarda Crostini, and Tiramisu for followers on the Traditional.

“It should not come as a shock that olive oil and lemon (cornerstones of the Mediterranean weight loss program) are two of my most used substances within the kitchen. I take advantage of each incessantly,” De Laurentiis tells us. “Plus legumes, entire grains, and scrumptious veggies. What’s to not love?”

For the Lemon Spaghetti, she makes use of her Giadzy olive oil from Northern Italy, which is extra delicate than these from Southern Italy, the place warmth concentrates the fruit’s taste. “This type of olive oil from the north, Liguria, you should use for cooking and you should use it for ending, which is why I find it irresistible a lot.”

The pasta sauce incorporates lemon zest and juice, and the chef recommends Spaghetti Chitarra, noodles that the sauce can cling to.

The chef is a godmother of the Oceania Vista ship, which serves the Lemon Spaghetti at its restaurant Toscana. The ship has an 11-day itinerary in October from Rome that features stops in Cinque Terre, Naples, and Sicily.

“I can’t think about a extra extraordinary manner for meals lovers to expertise numerous the Mediterranean than cruising with Oceania Cruises, a line that’s really enthusiastic about its meals,” she says. “The road’s chef-led Culinary Discovery Excursions take visitors straight into the guts of every vacation spot’s culinary soul in a hands-on expertise, whether or not that is sampling artisanal Maltese delicacies in a grotto-turned-restaurant or market excursions in Naples.”