Ingredients

Ah, carbs. Pasta is a wonderful thing. But if you want to eat it at a restaurant, there's a high chance that you'll need to go to a moderately fancy sit-down place and wait a long time for it.

Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis is setting out to change all that with a chain of fast-casual pasta restaurants that she told PopSugar is in the "very, very early stages" but would likely start out in the Midwest.

"I've been wanting to do a fast-casual for forever," De Laurentiis explained. "I've learned from having a restaurant in Vegas that people love pasta and they love pasta at all different price points, to be honest."

The heavy lifting for De Laurentiis' brainchild will likely coincide with a quick-service restaurant she is planning to open in Las Vegas as well as a sit-down dining spot in Baltimore, both of which will launch in 2018.

"We'll see how it goes," she explained. "There's hamburger spots opening up from different celebrity chefs all over the country!"

She's going to start with a one-night-only pop-up at Chefs Club Counter in New York City, just to see how people like it. And she admitted that she would probably add a casual pasta spot in the city after she tackles the rest of the nation, because she said that New Yorkers already have access to a ton of "great food."

The menu will feature salad Sant Ambroeus gelato, Whispering Angel Rose, and Illy coffee accompanying either rigatoni with pork ragu or fusilli with jumbo shrimp. Sounds delicious!

If you're interested in visiting the pop-up, you can get tickets for $60 a piece for the Oct. 15 dinner. Proceeds will go to the National Compassion Fund Las Vegas.

Tickets go on sale Oct. 5, although subscribers to De Laurentiis' website, Giadzy, can purchase tickets online one day early. Signing up is free and gives you access to recipes, news, videos, merchandise and other perks, according to the webpage.

"I'm hoping that I get some really great feedback from people as to whether or not this is something that people would like," De Laurentiis said of the New York event.

Instructions

Print This Recipe

Ah, carbs. Pasta is a wonderful thing. But if you want to eat it at a restaurant, there's a high chance that you'll need to go to a moderately fancy sit-down place and wait a long time for it.

Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis is setting out to change all that with a chain of fast-casual pasta restaurants that she told PopSugar is in the "very, very early stages" but would likely start out in the Midwest.

"I've been wanting to do a fast-casual for forever," De Laurentiis explained. "I've learned from having a restaurant in Vegas that people love pasta and they love pasta at all different price points, to be honest."

The heavy lifting for De Laurentiis' brainchild will likely coincide with a quick-service restaurant she is planning to open in Las Vegas as well as a sit-down dining spot in Baltimore, both of which will launch in 2018.

"We'll see how it goes," she explained. "There's hamburger spots opening up from different celebrity chefs all over the country!"

She's going to start with a one-night-only pop-up at Chefs Club Counter in New York City, just to see how people like it. And she admitted that she would probably add a casual pasta spot in the city after she tackles the rest of the nation, because she said that New Yorkers already have access to a ton of "great food."

The menu will feature salad Sant Ambroeus gelato, Whispering Angel Rose, and Illy coffee accompanying either rigatoni with pork ragu or fusilli with jumbo shrimp. Sounds delicious!

If you're interested in visiting the pop-up, you can get tickets for $60 a piece for the Oct. 15 dinner. Proceeds will go to the National Compassion Fund Las Vegas.

Tickets go on sale Oct. 5, although subscribers to De Laurentiis' website, Giadzy, can purchase tickets online one day early. Signing up is free and gives you access to recipes, news, videos, merchandise and other perks, according to the webpage.

"I'm hoping that I get some really great feedback from people as to whether or not this is something that people would like," De Laurentiis said of the New York event.

Giada De Laurentiis Wants To Sell You Fast-Casual Pasta

Ah, carbs. Pasta is a wonderful thing. But if you want to eat it at a restaurant, there's a high chance that you'll need to go to a moderately fancy sit-down place and wait a long time for it.

Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis is setting out to change all that with a chain of fast-casual pasta restaurants that she told PopSugar is in the "very, very early stages" but would likely start out in the Midwest.

"I've been wanting to do a fast-casual for forever," De Laurentiis explained. "I've learned from having a restaurant in Vegas that people love pasta and they love pasta at all different price points, to be honest."

The heavy lifting for De Laurentiis' brainchild will likely coincide with a quick-service restaurant she is planning to open in Las Vegas as well as a sit-down dining spot in Baltimore, both of which will launch in 2018.

"We'll see how it goes," she explained. "There's hamburger spots opening up from different celebrity chefs all over the country!"

She's going to start with a one-night-only pop-up at Chefs Club Counter in New York City, just to see how people like it. And she admitted that she would probably add a casual pasta spot in the city after she tackles the rest of the nation, because she said that New Yorkers already have access to a ton of "great food."

The menu will feature salad Sant Ambroeus gelato, Whispering Angel Rose, and Illy coffee accompanying either rigatoni with pork ragu or fusilli with jumbo shrimp. Sounds delicious!

If you're interested in visiting the pop-up, you can get tickets for $60 a piece for the Oct. 15 dinner. Proceeds will go to the National Compassion Fund Las Vegas.

Tickets go on sale Oct. 5, although subscribers to De Laurentiis' website, Giadzy, can purchase tickets online one day early. Signing up is free and gives you access to recipes, news, videos, merchandise and other perks, according to the webpage.

"I'm hoping that I get some really great feedback from people as to whether or not this is something that people would like," De Laurentiis said of the New York event.