Giada De Laurentiis’ Important Substances for Mediterranean Cooking

Italian-American chef, Meals Community star, and Oceania Cruises Culinary Advisory Board co-chair Giada De Laurentiis calls the Mediterranean dwelling. She grew up in Rome and most not too long ago visited Ischia and Sardinia, two hidden gems she recommends experiencing earlier than they get too well-liked. “They’re each spectacular,” she says. “They each really feel actually untouched and wild.”

The world traveler joined us on the 2025 Meals & Wine Basic in Aspen to reveal a recipe at her A Style of the Mediterranean, offered by Oceania Cruises seminar. “The Mediterranean food regimen has gained a lot worldwide recognition for a motive. It’s constructed on the muse of utilizing actually good, easy components to make extraordinarily flavorful dishes,” De Laurentiis tells Meals & Wine. “That mentality has formed every part I’ve performed in my profession within the kitchen.”

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

“It should not come as a shock that olive oil and lemon (cornerstones of the Mediterranean food regimen) are two of my most used components within the kitchen. I exploit each incessantly,” De Laurentiis tells us. “Plus legumes, complete 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 gentle than these from Southern Italy, the place warmth concentrates the fruit’s taste. “This sort of olive oil from the north, Liguria, you need to use for cooking and you need to 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 lots of 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 friends 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.”