Why Giada De Laurentiis Adds White Chocolate To Soup

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Giada De Laurentiis adds an unexpected ingredient to her soup. The Italian chef and Food Network personality shares her recipe for cauliflower soup with spicy salami in her 2018 cookbook, "Giada's Italy: My Recipes for La Dolce Vita," and says that when it comes to the secret to the soup's velvety texture, her surprise addition is white chocolate. 

"It's not as strange as it seems; white chocolate is used in northern Italy to finish dishes and give them a velvety sheen," De Laurentiis explains. "The contrast of the rustic, sharp salami and the rich, faintly sweet veggies and chocolate is really sophisticated and so yummy!"

After cooking her vegetables, including leeks, celery, parsnips, and cauliflower with seasonings like salt and thyme, in a Dutch oven over medium heat, De Laurentiis blends the ingredients in an immersion blender until smooth. She then returns the soup to low heat and adds the chocolate (⅓ cup of chopped white chocolate for a six-serving portion of soup), whisking until it's melted into the other ingredients. Once she finishes the dish with browned salami, she tops it off with lemon juice and olive oil.

Although De Laurentiis recommends pairing the soup with hazelnut chicken or marinated bistecca fiorentina, she says it shouldn't be limited to a side dish. "It's also nice right out of a mug on a cold day," she states.

While adding a sweet treat like chocolate to soup may seem unconventional, Giada De Laurentiis isn't the first to do it — and she won't be the last. White chocolate has been used to enhance the rich creaminess of many soups, including Robert Irvine's roasted parsnip and vanilla chocolate soup. In Irvine's recipe, he tosses not only Hershey's Premier White Baking Chips into the dish, but also cocoa powder to enhance the texture of the soup.

White chocolate can also enhance a butternut squash soup, like our roasted butternut squash one, a potato soup, such as our creamy ham and potato version, or a parsnip soup. It has even been paired with lobster in bisque-style recipes, like this rich and creamy lobster bisque.

This tip shouldn't be limited to white chocolate, either. Dark chocolate, typically with low sugar, has been known to add depth and complexity to more savory soups, like chili. It can also balance the acidity of the dish's tomato base, as it would with any tomato-heavy soup or stew.