How to Throw the Perfect Italian Picnic

Having a homemade picnic is a great summer activity. Here's how to throw the perfect Italian one!

When the weather is nice, we want to spend as much time outside as possible - including meal times! We love the idea of structuring a picnic around a theme, and what better theme for us than an Italian picnic! Head to the park or set up in your backyard, close your eyes, and you'll feel like you're somewhere in Italy without a care in the world.
Our go-to picnic food formula always works out beautifully: a pasta salad, a make-ahead sandwich, a sweet, and a drink. You want to eat food that holds up well during transport, won't get sad and soggy, and will still be tasty at near-room temperature. Luckily, we've got the perfect menu set up for you - it's all make-ahead, except for the cocktail, which takes about 2 minutes to throw together (for a booze-free option, try Giada's Italian Lemonade!).

The Perfect Italian Picnic

Romesco Pasta Salad with Burrata

Romesco is almost like a pesto that starts off with jarred roasted bell peppers - it gives a great slightly smokey sweetness, all while being super creamy and delicious - thanks in part to lots of torn up burrata cheese. Arugula always stands up well for a few days in the fridge in a pasta salad, so you can absolutely make this a day ahead of eating it!

Marinated Salumi Sandwich

This crowd-pleasing sandwich is made muffuletta-style: you assemble it a few hours to a day ahead of time using one loaf of bread, then slice it up into pieces later. With pesto, salame, cheese, and an arugula-fennel salad to tie it together, this one is a real winner. If you want to be extra (which we always do) you can cut the sandwich into wedges, then wrap them up individually in wax paper to bring along with you.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Blondies

The perfect to-go sweet! These bars hold up really well after being cut into squares, and they're so good.

Blood Orange Shandy

So, this isn't an Italian cocktail necessarily - the concept of a Shandy, or Shandygaff, actually hails from the UK. However, Giada gave it her Italian spin by replacing traditional lemonade with Italian blood orange soda. It results in an incredibly light, refreshing and fizzy cocktail that's just perfect for daytime.