How to Make Giada De Laurentiis's Easy Italian Hot Cocoa

The 2026 Winter Olympics have thrown a spotlight on Northern Italy in all its glory: The gorgeous Dolomite mountains, Milan’s Duomo and piazza, and the serious après-ski culture. Giada De Laurentiis has been traipsing around the region, highlighting some of her favorite places and things to eat and drink, from knödel in a ski hut to Negronis at her favorite aperitivo bar. If you’re not there, you definitely want to be.

When she and I chatted before she left for Italy, she waxed poetic about many things, but she was especially enthusiastic about Italian hot chocolate. “It’s made with melted pure chocolate and a little cream,” she says. “It’s not sweet, like a milk chocolate thing. It’s thick and really coats your tongue. It’s like a liquid pudding.”

But what she really loves is a Torino hot chocolate, aka bicerin, a drink (basically a dessert) that hails from Turin, just west of Milan. It’s a layered coffee confection made with thick Italian hot chocolate, a shot of espresso and whipped cream. To my mocha-loving soul, it sounds like heaven.

How to Use Giada De Laurentiis’s Italian Hot Chocolate Hack
Four cups of chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream are arranged on a table. Two spoons lie in front of the cups. A jar with cocoa powder and a small plate with whipped cream are in the background. Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Like most of us, the only way I’ll be visiting Italy any time soon is via the couch in front of my television. I’ve already made Giada’s antipasti skewers and arancini while sipping Peroni and Prosecco during the almost three-week run, and have made all sorts of Olympics watch-party food. But an Italian hot chocolate is the genius move for dessert.

To make Giada’s easy Italian hot chocolate, simply add a small piece of dark chocolate to a cup (I used a Dove foil-wrapped candy), and brew hot espresso over it. The dark chocolate melts and sweetens the espresso; it’s not super thick, but it adds a bit of creaminess. A dollop of whipped cream makes it pretty dreamy, but adding a splash of heavy cream suffices, too.

For a group, I’ll still make our rich and decadent Italian hot chocolate on the stove by melting baking cocoa, dark chocolate and a bit of sugar and vanilla, then thickening it with a small amount of cornstarch, which gives it a pudding-like quality. But for solo watching, Giada’s quick-and-dirty version of a Torino hot chocolate is just the thing. It’s like the perfect little mocha without any heavy lifting.