If you’re like us, there’s only one holiday gift you can imagine giving and receiving: high-quality food. From the best regional Italian ingredients to traditional Milanese panettone, our gifts are rich and sweet, timelessly delicious, and always a hit at any party.
In Italy, we have always considered good food to be the best gift, dating back to our grandparents’ days of hardship when it was much less abundant, and sharing it showed love. Thanks to our nonni, that tradition has held strong among Italians today. This year show you care by giving the gift of food to the ones you love (and that includes yourself!). Explore our marketplace of gifts throughout the holidays to find the best gifts for mom or dad, for your friends and beyond.
Find the right Italian treat for all of your hosting, check out our holiday gift guide:
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
Find the right Italian treat for all of your hosting and gifting needs this holiday season with 12 of our favorite gifts.
1. GIFT BASKETS
Skip the socks this year – why not surprise them with something they haven’t had before? Overflowing with quality ingredients from Italy, each of our holiday gift baskets is hand-packed with a unique, curated theme, from regions to recipes. Choose between our ready-to-go or build your own to make completely customized gift baskets with your favorite ingredients.
2. PANETTONE
Wrapped in festive paper, this sweet and fluffy holiday dessert is a traditional, crowd-pleasing favorite. Hailing from Milano, each slice offers a taste of the high-quality flour, eggs, and dried fruit, which symbolize luck and prosperity. Discover the legend of Italy’s traditional Christmas cake, then bring one home to share!
3. EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
In Italy, it’s not uncommon to gift your loved ones a fine bottle of extra virgin olive oil. This year, take a page from our book and surprise someone with a hand-picked (literally) ceramic bottle of olio d’oliva, made from cold-pressed, 100% Italian olives. What could be a more unique gift to bring to a holiday gathering?
We suggest the Taggiasca monocultivar extra virgin olive oil, the so-called “king of Ligurian olive oils” known flavour is mellow and buttery flavour, making it a great go-to olive oil if you don’t want something too peppery and intense.
4. PARMIGIANO REGGIANO DOP
Made according to old-world Italian tradition and with just three ingredients, Parmigiano Reggiano DOP is nothing but the real deal. With each bite, savor the rich flavors and granular texture that only gets better with age. Consider a hunk as a prized addition to any antipasto board, or a special gift to keep the festive flavor coming for months to come.
We highly recommend : the Parmigiano Reggiano DOP Vacche Rosse, the milk is very unique and gives to the cheese a sweet and persistent taste that reminds melted butter, hay and dried fruit.
5. SALUMI
Don’t be afraid to gift like an Italian: the gift of a whole salumi is a creative (and delicious) way to show you care. So do as the Italians do, and give a whole one as a truly precious gift.
We suggest Culatta, one of the most prestigious cured meats of the Parma culinary tradition. Mainly produced in the humid Lower lands “bassa” near the great Po river, the core of the pork leg is refined, crafted, salted and matured minimum ten months. The taste? Persistent, natural and sweet taste!
6. COOKIES (cantucci, baci di dama, amaretti,)
From crunchy Cantucci to buttery biscotti, our Italian cookies are made with the finest natural ingredients, promising to add a sweet, wholesome twist to your day.
We especially recommend the classic Tuscan Cantucci, perfect with a great with Vin Santo or even Paste di Meliga together with a good glass of red wine. Otherwise for chocolate lovers we recommend Baci di Dama, two hazelnuts cookies united by a delicious chocolate cream, as they were kissing.
7. A FRAGRANT GIFT
Unwrap something fragrant that’s good for your body! At Eataly, we believe that what you put on the outside of your body is just as important as what you eat. Our beauty products are inspired by the healing nutrients found in traditional ingredients like extra virgin olive oil, apples, honey, milk, and more.
8. PESTO (genovese)
Pesto is an easy and ready-to-go and versatile product. While traditional Genovese pesto is green, the famous sauce goes far beyond basil. The name comes from the Italian verb pestare, meaning “to grind.” Italians traditionally use a mortar and pestle to blend fresh ingredients together with extra virgin olive oil, giving us a rainbow of pesto possibilities. From pasta to salads, dips to dressings, pesto is always well appreciated.
We suggest: the classic Basil Genovese Pesto, fresh with an intense aroma, this pesto is perfect paired with typical Ligurian pasta, such as trofie, gnocchi, and trenette.
9. CHOCOLATE
Using only the finest raw ingredients, our artisanal chocolatiers in Italy create a variety of shapes, textures, and flavors according to traditional recipes, artisanal chocolate made from premium cacao beans is perfect for any mood and every occasion.
We suggest: The perfect gift for any dark chocolate lovers is Tartufi Dolci neri, delicious pralines made with the best toasted and chopped hazelnuts combined with chocolate create a truly delicious praline that releases an intense flavour of cocoa and hazelnut. If the gift receiver prefers chocolate milk, we suggest the creamy giandujotti that literally melt in the mouth.
10. GIFT CARD
A gift for any occasion, our gift cards open the door to Italian cuisine, offering an abundance of high-quality food and drink from Italy’s 20 regions. Give the food lovers in your life the opportunity to enjoy our chefs’ prepared dishes at our restaurants and counters; shop our high-quality local and Italian products in our marketplace; and discover classes offered at La Scuola, our cooking school.
Explore our entire marketplace for these gifts and more.
Buone feste!
