Giada de Laurentiis has a new pitch for summer in the U.S.: a traveling pop-up built around Peroni Nastro Azzurro, her Pane di Peroni focaccia and the recipe she says people ask her for most, Sicilian pesto. At the kick-off event in New York City, she said the dish is the one that keeps getting requested because it surprises people every time she makes it.
The partnership puts de Laurentiis, the Italian-born chef who became a household name on Food Network's Everyday Italian, at the center of Peroni Portals in the United States. Guests at the pop-up can grab a bottle of Peroni and try her focaccia, which she said uses Peroni in the batter. She also said the beer is the secret to her parents' fritto misto, a reminder that the promotion is built around the cooking style she has long made part of her public identity.
What keeps Sicilian pesto at the center of the conversation is how she uses it. De Laurentiis said she keeps a batch in the fridge and reaches for it on pasta for summer, grilled chicken, grilled meat and grilled fish. She described it as a bold red sauce built on Sicilian tomatoes and almonds, and said people are wowed by it each time she serves it. That is the detail that matters here: this is not a passing cookbook note but a recipe she leans on constantly and one that guests keep pressing her to share.
The sharper edge comes from what she said she is done with. De Laurentiis said she is over truffle oil and gets pushback on it in her restaurant all the time, adding that it is usually not real truffles and that she prefers fresh truffles. That preference sits neatly beside her confidence in Sicilian pesto and her defense of avocado toast, which she said she hopes sticks around forever and ever and ever. In other words, she is not just selling a pop-up; she is drawing a line between what she thinks still works on a plate and what has worn out its welcome.
Peroni Portals will keep moving through major cities across the U.S., but the exact route and schedule have not been spelled out. For now, the headline is simpler: de Laurentiis is using the rollout to put one of her most requested recipes back in front of the people who keep asking for it.
