Giada De Laurentiis plans to celebrate the holidays the way she always does: with pizza.
The chef and Food Network personality likes to put an Italian twist on her annual seasonal menus. Dishes like prosciutto-wrapped turkey, mashed potatoes, and chestnut stuffing make appearances on her dinner table year after year, but pizza might be the highlight.
"One of my favorite holiday memories as a kid was making [pizza] with my grandfather," De Laurentiis tells BAZAAR.com. "He would make the dough from scratch, divide it up so we each had a dough ball, and then give us a bunch of toppings. And he would have all his kids get up there and make our own pizzas—top it, roll it out, the whole thing, cook it, and then we'd get to eat it. I think for me, that's where I first realized I loved food, number one, and I loved how it made me feel."
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This year, holiday entertaining feels more meaningful than ever as friends and families can gather more safely in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. That sense of reunion and relief inspired De Laurentiis's new collaboration with The Carousel at Bloomingdale's, a pop-up shop called Happy Together Again featuring curated holiday kits stocked with the star chef's cooking and entertaining essentials for the season.
"We missed our families for the last couple of years. I think that [the season has] become even more special than it was before. We've learned not to take things for granted. Our lives have been turned upside down, and it is wonderful to finally feel like it's safe to be together again," says De Laurentiis. " So I thought this would be a great time to introduce these kits and to make this year the best holiday celebration ever. It's basically bringing the dolce vita—the wonderful life—of Italy to your holiday entertaining table."
SHOP GIADA'S GIADZY KITS
Giadzy Festa della Pizza Limited Edition
Giadzy Dolce Delight, Limited Edition
Giadzy Dinner Party alla Roma - 100% Exclusive
Giadzy Tour De Pasta - 100% Exclusive
The pizza party kit contains Italian flour for the dough, plus a cherry tomato sauce handmade by a family in the south of Italy. Explains De Laurentiis, "I wanted to create your own pizza party, but with all of these fabulous Italian ingredients at home and to start creating those memories that have basically gotten me where I am today. I think now more than ever those memories are what is going to connect us throughout our lives. And they're really, really important, because we don't know when we're going to get [the chance] again."
Aside from planning a few sure-to-be-stellar holiday meals this year, what else is the Italian chef looking forward to in the coming months?
"I just went through a giant renovation that took me two years," the chef admits. "I am just really excited to have everybody at my house. Not only because I haven't been able to be with my extended family for the last two holidays, but also because I was in a rental and I felt a little displaced and my stuff was half in boxes. I'm just so happy to be unpacked and have all my family over for the holidays this year. I'm just thrilled."
Happy Together Again is open through January 14 at Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship in New York City and also online at Bloomingdales.com.
Below, De Laurentiis shares her go-to recipe for Margherita Grandma Pizza.
Margherita Grandma Pizza
INGREDIENTS
For the Dough:
- 3¼ cups unbleached bread flour, such as Petra
- 1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1¼ teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 cups warm water, at approximately 95 degrees F
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
For the Toppings:
- 1 cup pizza sauce or marinara, such as Viragi Sicilian Cherry Tomato Sauce
- 3 to 4 large tomatoes, sliced into rounds
- 1 cup mozzarella ciliegine
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup fresh basil, torn
- Olive oil, for finishing
INSTRUCTIONS
- Add the bread flour, yeast, and salt to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Turn the mixer on low speed for just 15-20 seconds to evenly distribute the ingredients. Add the warm water. Turn the mixer on low speed for about 5 minutes, making sure all the ingredients are evenly incorporated with no clumps of flour. The dough will be very wet and sticky. Remove the bowl from the mixer and cover with plastic wrap or a silicone lid.
- Allow the dough to rest in a dry, warm place for 30 minutes. Once rested, wet your hands slightly to ensure the dough doesn’t stick to your fingers. With one hand, scoop the edge of dough on the farthest side from you and stretch slightly to gather it in the middle. Rotate the bowl slightly and continue this process until all the edges of the dough have been folded to the center. Cover the bowl again with the plastic wrap or silicone lid, and allow to rest for an additional 30 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Prepare a baking sheet by adding 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the center and use a pastry brush or your fingers to evenly coat the pan, including the sides. Turn the focaccia dough out onto the oiled baking sheet, using a rubber spatula if necessary to get all of it out. With oiled hands, gently work the dough and stretch it until it almost covers the whole pan. Don’t worry if the dough retracts or doesn’t reach the ends of the sheet. Be careful to try and not release bubbles in the dough during this process. Allow the dough to rest in a warm place, uncovered, for another 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- With oiled fingers, gently stretch the dough to cover the entire pan. Make indentations in the dough with your fingers to form dimples all throughout the dough. Evenly spread the pizza sauce over the dough, leaving a half-inch edge around the border for a crust, working gently to try and not press the dough down too hard. Scatter the slices of tomato over the sauce and dot with the mozzarella ciliegine. Evenly sprinkle the salt over the tomatoes.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Top with the fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil over the whole pizza. Slice into squares and serve.
Bianca Betancourt is the culture editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, where she covers all things film, TV, music, and more. When she's not writing, she loves impulsively baking a batch of cookies, re-listening to the same early-2000s pop playlist, and stalking Mariah Carey's Twitter feed.
