In Giada's restaurants, shows, cookbooks, and nearly all of the recipes on this site, we turn to one tool to make parmesan light, feathery and perfect: the microplane!

People always ask Giada what the secret is to her pasta dishes, and while the answer is most always the pasta water, there's a little known trick she doesn't always talk about: a dusting of fluffy, light shreds of Parmesan only attainable from a microplane, covering each and every piece of pasta. (That's also how she gets the Caesar Salad in her restaurants so delicious!) And for finishing a dish, nothing compares to the fluffy dusting of delicate cheese you get from this kitchen tool, and it can't be replicated from a regular cheese grater. It allows every airy piece of Parmesan to coat each bite!

Pasta aside, we think a sprinkle of microplaned Parmiggiano is a perfect finishing touch for any Italian dish, like Giada's Stuffed Chicken Parmesanor lightened-up Chicken Milanese. 
Know that this mighty kitchen tool is not just great for Parmesan, either! It's how we zest our citrus, grate fresh nutmeg, or even shave a fresh dusting of chocolate over affogato and tiramisu.