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A little drizzle of something special brings major flavor to every bite.

Key Points

• Giada De Laurentiis gives a viral cucumber salad an Italian twist with Calabrian chili paste and colatura.
• Anchovy oil, a key Caesar salad ingredient, is Giada’s secret to elevating this refreshing summer dish.
• This five-ingredient cucumber salad is quick, flavorful and perfect for hot summer days.

If you’re looking for a cheerleader for Italian food, you call up Giada De Laurentiis. The celebrity chef was born in Rome, emigrated to the U.S. as a child and is now known for sharing approachable Italian recipes with an American audience. She’s previously wowed us with her summer recipes for white pesto, Caprese ricotta dip and cherry tomato-chickpea pasta.

Giada recently reshared her spin on a viral TikTok recipe—but she adds a secret ingredient that makes so much sense. Over on The Giadzy’s Instagram, Giada reposted a 2024 video of herself making a five-ingredient cucumber salad. “If you made the viral cucumber salad last summer, it’s time to try it Giada’s way!” the caption says.

The original videoposted on the chef’s main account, credits Logan Moffitt for inspiration. (Logan is a TikToker who went viral for his cucumber salad recipes in 2024.) Logan’s original recipes are East Asian-inspired, using ingredients like fish sauce, Sichuan chili oil and MSG.

To make an Italian version, Giada starts by thinly slicing a cucumber on a mandoline and placing the slices in a jar. Then, instead of Sichuan chili oil, she opts for Calabrian chili paste and, instead of MSG, uses a salt blend made with red pepper flakes, oregano and lemon. Like any good Italian, she also adds olive oil.

Lastly, she uses an ingredient we’ve never seen in cucumber salad before. Instead of Asian fish sauce, she uses colatura, an Italian anchovy oil. We should’ve seen the writing on the wall. When we spoke to Giada last year, she shared that she thinks anchovies are the most underrated Italian ingredient:

“I think that people are scared of [them]but then they love Caesar salad,” De Laurentiis said. “What do you think is in a Caesar salad dressing? It’s anchovy paste, whole anchovies or anchovy oil, right? People aren’t realizing that the things they truly love actually have these ingredients in them.”

After adding all the ingredients for the cucumber salad to the jar, she gives it a good shake and dives in. “That’s really good! I think I’m surprising myself,” she exclaims in the video, saying that the salad is perfect for hot summer days. We can’t wait to try it.

If you’re still craving cucumbers, there are plenty more deliciously simple cucumber salads out there to try—not to mention dreamy summer lunches like cucumber sandwiches and velvety cucumber soup. Want to stick with salad? Here are just a few of our favorite recipes: