The cover of Giada De Laurentiis’ new cookbook, Giadas Kitchen: New Italian Favorites, her fourth.

Photo courtesy of Clarkson Potter

Giada De Laurentiis has just published a new cookbook and introduces a new television series on Food Network Saturday night. The celebrity chef has lightened up her cooking with citrus, taken her show outside to the California sunshine and finds she is thinking about how to make faster, shorter recipes. That’s because she also has a new daughter named Jade.

De Laurentiis expands beyond her Italian cooking roots to find new inspiration for cooking local in her new daytime series Giada at Home, which premieres Saturday at 1 p.m. It is set in California, her home, and utilizes lots of Southern California ingredients and style.

“I always say I’m half Italian, half Californian,” she said in a conference call interview after putting in an appearance on NBC’s Today and cooking with host Matt Lauer.

In the new show, she branches out from the stove and takes viewers outside the kitchen as she plans meals with local ingredients to entertain friends. “We’ll see a lot of farmers’ markets,” she said.

It will be part lifestyle show but will continue to showcase her cooking. Things will be a little different from what she did on her Everyday Italian show.

“I did Everyday Italian for six years and it was time to change,” she said. If Food Network was unhappy with a new show they didn’t express it to her, she added.

“We’re not playing a part,” she said of cooking shows. “We are being ourselves.”

Everything for her is different, from motherhood to her maturity as a cookbook writer, and she said she hopes her fans will join her on her new ride.

The new show will offer California barbecues, cocktail parties, a sushi lesson and even a lobster bake on the beach. Filming that bake was not so much fun, as it’s hard to control the temperature of a fire and control the wind to cook those crustaceans on any sort of time schedule.

“It’s hard to do entertaining on a beach,” she said. Small gatherings in her kitchen are her favorite ways to entertain.

She likes to make sushi and teach guests how to do it too.

“People are so responsive to sushi,” she said. “It’s so light and colorful.” Then there’s the immediate gratification of making the pieces and popping them into your mouth.

That sushi conversation also indicates that the food choices on Giada at Home will be a little different, too. They won’t always be the Italian specialties fans have come to expect of De Laurentiis.

“We’ll use citrus, like lemons, to add flavor instead of fat,” she said.

Indeed that kind of lightened up cooking is very noticeable in her new cookbook, Giada’s Kitchen: New Italian Favorites (Clarkson Potter, $32.50), her fourth. Whole-wheat linguine is paired with green beans, a bit of ricotta and lemon. Salmon and whole-wheat spaghetti are perked up with lemon and spinach for a healthful, nutritious dish. There’s lemon risotto and linguine and shrimp with lemon oil. Her skewers feature tomato, watermelon and basil.

She feels like the book is sunny and happy and the recipes reflect that. Easy and fun is a Polenta-Crusted Shrimp dish.

Though her daughter is only six months old, and not eating her mother’s cooking, she is excited about a chapter on kid favorites in the new cookbook. Orecchiette with Mini Chicken Meatballs includes De Laurentiis’ favorite little ear pasta. She loves it because the shape makes the pieces like a spoon for the sauce it is served in. But a reader-favorite recipe may well be Sweet and Sticky Drumsticks, which is easy and tasty, as I learned when I prepared it for Sunday dinner. Made with balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and honey, the meat marinates for an extended period of time and then the chicken bakes in the oven while the marinade reduces to a tasty and sticky coating and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.

Other favorites of hers from the book include a roast beef for the holidays adorned with a blended parsley sauce.

So how has being a mother changed her life in the kitchen?

De Laurentiis said she makes faster, shorter recipes.

“There is less time for cooking when you have children,” she says. “But at the same time you want to continue all those wonderful traditions of home cooking. But you want to do it fast.”

De Laurentiis, 38, the granddaughter of movie producer Dino De Laurentiis, was born in Rome but raised in California. She became a professional chef after attending the Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Paris and worked in a variety of Los Angeles restaurants before forming her own catering company. She joined Food Network in 2003, hosting Everyday Italian and then Giada’s Weekend Getaways. That show, too, is off the schedule as she chooses to spend time at home in California with her family and not do much traveling. After all, number five on her five things to make her smile is cooking in her kitchen. (Number one is her daughter; number two her whole family; number three, chocolate; and number four, watching a sunset.)

Changes are just part of the chef’s real life, changes that no doubt will only make her even more appealing to her fans.

CHOCOLATE PANNA COTTA WITH AMARETTO WHIPPED CREAM1

CHOCOLATE PANNA COTTA WITH AMARETTO WHIPPED CREAM

2 cups cold whole milk, divided use

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 packet unflavored gelatin

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 (12-ounce) bag bittersweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds

1 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar

1 tablespoon almond liqueur such as Amaretto

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 2-quart casserole dish. In a small saucepan, combine 1½ cups of the milk, the granulated sugar, and the vanilla. Bring to a simmer and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat. In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the remaining ½ cup of cold milk and let it dissolve for 2 minutes. Combine the cold milk and gelatin with the hot milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve the gelatin, about 5 minutes. (If the gelatin is not dissolving easily, heat the milk gently.) When the gelatin is dissolved, combine the eggs with the warm milk mixture, whisking constantly to avoid scrambling the eggs.

Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a large measuring cup or small pitcher. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips over simmering water in a double boiler. When the chocolate is melted, gradually combine the milk and egg mixture with the melted chocolate, stirring between each addition to create a smooth chocolate mixture. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish. Sprinkle the top with the almonds. Place the casserole dish in a larger baking pan or roasting pan and add hot water to the larger pan until the water comes halfway up the sides of the casserole dish. Place both pans in the oven and bake the panna cotta until the sides are firm and the center jiggles slightly, about 1 hour.

Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes. Just before serving, whip the cream to soft peaks in a medium bowl using a whisk or electric hand mixer. Add the confectioners’ sugar and almond liqueur and whip to combine. Spoon the panna cotta into individual serving bowls and dollop the top with the almond whipped cream.

4 to 6 servings

POLENTA-CRUSTED SHRIMP WITH HONEY MUSTARD1

POLENTA-CRUSTED SHRIMP WITH HONEY MUSTARD

Polenta-Crusted Shrimp:

Vegetable cooking spray

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups fine polenta

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined, tail on

Kosher salt, for sprinkling

Honey Mustard Sauce:

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons plain yogurt

5 tablespoons honey

To make the shrimp, position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 475 degrees. Coat a baking sheet liberally with vegetable cooking spray.

Put the flour in a small bowl. Pour the beaten eggs into another small bowl. Mix together the polenta and paprika in a medium bowl. Working in batches, dredge the shrimp in the flour. Dip the flour-dredged shrimp into the eggs and then coat with the polenta mixture.

Place the shrimp on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until crisp and golden. Sprinkle with the kosher salt.

To make the sauce: Combine the mustard, yogurt and honey ingredients in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Serve the shrimp with little dishes of sauce for dipping.

Serves 4 to 6.

SWEET AND STICKY CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS1

SWEET AND STICKY CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup soy sauce

5 fresh rosemary sprigs

5 garlic cloves, halved

10 to 12 chicken drumsticks

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

Combine the balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, rosemary sprigs, and garlic cloves in a large, resealable plastic bag. Shake and squeeze the contents of the bag to dissolve the honey and the brown sugar. Add the chicken drumsticks to the bag and seal, squeezing out as much air from the bag as possible. Marinate in the refrigerator for two hours. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Remove the chicken drumsticks from the bag, reserving the marinade, and arrange them on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the skin is caramelized and very dark in spots, 30 to 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the marinade in a small saucepan. Bring the marinade to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook over low heat until thick, about 15 minutes.

Use a pastry brush to brush some of the cooked marinade on the cooked chicken. Place the chicken on a serving platter. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and the chopped parsley.

Serves 4 to 6.

ORECCHIETTE WITH MINI CHICKEN MEATBALLS1

ORECCHIETTE WITH MINI CHICKEN MEATBALLS

1 pound orecchiette pasta

1/4 cup plain bread crumbs

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon whole milk

1 tablespoon ketchup

3/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 pound ground chicken

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

4 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

8 ounces bocconcini (small mozzarella balls), halved

1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, parsley, eggs, milk, ketchup, romano cheese, salt, and pepper. Add the chicken and combine well. Using a melon baller (or a teaspoon measure) to scoop up the mixture, roll the seasoned chicken into 3/4-inch mini meatballs.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add the meatballs and cook without moving until brown on the bottom, about two minutes. Turn the meatballs and brown the tops, about two minutes longer. Add the chicken broth and tomatoes and bring to a boil, using a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits that cling to the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the tomatoes are soft and the meatballs are cooked through, about five minutes.

Drain the pasta, reserving about 1 cup of the water. Transfer the pasta to a large serving bowl and add 1/2 cup of parmesan. Toss to coat the orecchiette lightly, adding some of the reserved pasta water to help make a sauce. Add the meatball mixture, bocconcini, and ½ cup of the basil and combine. Garnish with the remaining 1/2 cup of Parmesan and the remaining basil.

Serves 4 to 6.

gciampa@projo.com