Giada De Laurentiis Never Orders This Pasta Dish At A Restaurant

When you go to a restaurant, it's always worth it to order something you don't usually make for yourself. Giada de Laurentiis definitely subscribes to this mindset, as there's a certain pasta she would never order on a night out. In an interview with The Messenger, the Italian food maven said she steers clear of lemon spaghetti (aka pasta al limone), since she can "make it better at home" (via Food Republic).

Lemon pasta is a creamy dish that's well worth the time, but perhaps not worth paying for at a fancy restaurant. A basic pasta al limone recipe uses only a few ingredients: Spaghetti, lemons, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and often some kind of fat like butter or cream. Most Italian restaurants offer far more creative pastas, so it's no wonder why de Laurentiis prefers to order something else. But don't get things twisted like a piece of fusilli — she still has plenty of affection for this lemony dish.

In her recipe for lemon spaghetti on her website Giadzy, the celebrity chef writes that the dish is a best-seller at her Las Vegas restaurant Giada. The restaurant's version adds shrimp and mascarpone, making it a little more special. And in a Tasting Table interview about Giada's favorite springtime foods, she commented that "lemon spaghetti along with a Peroni [beer] is probably one of my favorite ways to spend my summers."

While pasta al limone is off the menu for Giada de Laurentiis, she has been known to order another simple pasta dish when dining out. When in Los Angeles, de Laurentiis enjoys "Pasta with garlic, olive oil, and red pepper flakes" at Toscana, a decades-old Italian restaurant (via The Infatuation).

As for another go-to order of hers, the first thing de Laurentiis eats when she arrives in Rome is not pasta, but pizza bianca with mortadella. Rome's pizza bianca is unique compared to the saucy and cheesy pies you might be familiar with, as it's more like a chewy, crisp, and light flatbread topped with olive oil and salt. The pro chef grabs her favorite slice from the old-time spot Antico Forno Roscioli.

While she does her share of eating out, de Laurentiis makes tons of simple pasta recipes at home, with some being even more austere than her lemon spaghetti. The chocolaty pasta dish de Laurentiis loved as a child uses only plain noodles and chocolate hazelnut spread, and is still a major comfort food for her. De Laurentiis also has a tip for avoiding flavorless butter pasta, elevating the ultra-easy dish by using European butter.

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