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Giada welcomes fall with comforting pasta, zucchini roll-ups and chocolate amaretti cake

Greet the incoming chill in the air with three warming recipes from Giada De Laurentiis.
/ Source: TODAY

To celebrate autumn's arrival, celebrity chef, restaurateur and cookbook author Giada De Laurentiis is stopping by the TODAY kitchen to prepare a few of her favorite comforting recipes that are as great for entertaining as they are for a weeknight dinner. She shows us how to make cheesy pasta with pancetta, ricotta-filled zucchini roll-ups and orange-scented chocolate amaretti cake.

Pasta alla Zozzona

Zozzona, which loosely translates to "dirty," is actually much more silky than dirty. With the addition of egg yolks and cheese being tossed in at the end, this sauce becomes a beautiful mash up of carbonara and amatriciana with a little sausage thrown in for good measure.

Zucchini Lasagna Rolls

No pasta, no problem! In this dish, zucchini does all the work. Using a vegetable peeler makes thin, pliable strips of zucchini that create the perfect little dumplings of ricotta filling — no need to cook them beforehand. Comforting and cheesy but still bright and fresh tasting, this is a great dinner all year long.

What I love about this cake is that I can throw everything into the food processor, and the result is a perfect cake that's fudgy in the center and crisp on the outside. The great texture of this chocolate amaretti cake is due to the almonds and amaretti cookies in place of flour — it gives it this perfect chewy, gooey consistency. Bonus: It's gluten-free!

If you like those warming recipes, you should also try these:

Giada's Paccheri with Mushroom and Pistachios