Gigi Hadid Cooks "Tim's Pasta" and Talks Motherhood, Modeling, and Cooking From the Heart
Vogue
In this episode of Vogue's Now Serving, Gigi Hadid makes two things she prepares often at home: an Arnold Palmer sweetened with honey, and a pasta dish her family calls "Tim's pasta." Her approach to cooking runs through the whole episode: she rarely measures, adjusts by taste, and treats cooking as a creative outlet, a habit she traces to her father. Between steps she talks about how modeling has changed for her since becoming a mother, what shooting 50 covers has meant to her, her Palestinian family's cooking, and a long-held wish to host a cooking show.
An Arnold Palmer by Taste
Hadid's Arnold Palmer uses black tea, honey, lemons, and water. She notes that the flavors can be mixed and matched. She says early on that the "running theme" of the day is that she doesn't measure much: "You need to cook from the heart, people."
She boils water in a very large pitcher, filling it about halfway, and settles on four tea bags. She stirs to make sure the honey's sugars break down and dissolve at the bottom, then puts the tea in the fridge to cool while she makes lemonade.
For the lemonade, she halves the lemons (she points out that anything yellow appeals to her, and says the food stylist, Jess, seemed to sense yellow is her favorite color) and juices them with a juicer she calls the "juice king," naming herself the "juice queen." She aims for about four cups of juice.
She assembles the drink by tasting as she goes: some lemon, a bit more water, then more honey. On water she says, "You can add water, you can't take it away," and compares it to salt. She fishes the tea bags out ("bobbing for tea bags"), checks that there were four, and pronounces the result "heaven."
Early Modeling and the Confidence That Came Later
While the tea steeps, Hadid recalls her first modeling memory, a baby campaign for Guess. What she remembers is a child's logic: she believed that if she could keep her eyes open while looking into the sun, that made her a really good model.
Over time, she says, experience taught her to understand her place in the process and how to make everyone else's job easier. She links her growing confidence to getting older, and especially to having a child. In her view many life lessons come from getting through obstacles, and the confidence found in personal life "trickle[s] into every part" of it, including work.
Working Half the Time as a Mother
Hadid describes how she chooses work now. Music on set depends on the creative concept of the day: the storytelling, the character, what that character would listen to, and what she wants to feel and show with her eyes. That is why she says she needs to be excited about the creative.
She says she has "half the time I used to." She shares time with her daughter's father, and she works mainly when her daughter is with him. As a result she takes jobs that inspire her and that she feels creatively aligned with, which she calls "kind of the non-negotiable these days."
Fifty Covers as Fifty Experiences
While juicing lemons, Hadid reflects on having been on 50 international Vogue covers. She calls it "really wild," and says that when she thinks about it she thinks about the days spent with each team. She doesn't just see the finished photo. She remembers the trip, the hotel, and the personalities behind the image.
What Motherhood Has Taught Her
Hadid returns to motherhood while finishing the drink. She says one of the best parts of being a mom is experiencing life "through little eyes": children are present and excited, and their questions make you see everything in a new way. She also says mothers will sometimes feel something is more than they can handle or get through, and that doing it anyway builds confidence in yourself, which she calls "an amazing feeling."
Where Tim's Pasta Came From
Hadid says the pasta recipe came into her life during COVID, toward the end, when travel was starting to open up. Her family hosted her mom's best friend and that friend's husband, Tim, who made them the dish. Since then her household has called it Tim's pasta. The version she cooks here is "Tim's pasta, Gigi's version."
The ingredients are prosciutto, tomatoes, cilantro or parsley, spaghetti, Parmesan, olive oil, garlic, and pine nuts. She also adds red pepper flakes, which she thinks may be one of her own additions because she likes spice. She describes the sauce as essentially olive oil and garlic, with the prosciutto crisped up in it.
She cubes the tomatoes but says they can be cut any way, since "tomatoes taste the same in any shape."
Her Father's Cooking and Her Grandmother's Influence
Hadid calls her father the natural chef in the family. She says he can cook for 50 people with ease. The main lesson she took from him is to cook with your heart. Like her, he doesn't measure much. For him cooking is about tasting, smelling, and feeling it out, and it is another way of being creative.
Later, while toasting pine nuts, she talks about her Palestinian heritage. Much of her father's cooking is Palestinian food that her teta, her grandmother, cooked often, and she was the one who taught him. Whenever the family makes Middle Eastern or Palestinian food, Hadid says, her grandmother is "with us," and she finds that comforting. She loves eggs with za'atar and keeps a large jar of za'atar in her kitchen that she cooks with a lot.
A Lifelong Student of TV Cooking
Hadid calls herself "a student of television cooking" her whole life. On days home from school, if she wasn't watching Forensic Files, she was watching cooking shows. When she first came to New York, she says, one of her biggest goals apart from modeling was to be on cooking shows. At the end of the episode she calls the video her "dream come true of hosting my own cooking show."
The Prosciutto Flower
Hadid says she has cut prosciutto many ways since learning the recipe and shows a technique she worked out to vary thickness. She lays slices on the board one at a time and rotates them into what she calls a "prosciutto flower," first in one direction, then the opposite. She then chops it so the middle yields chunkier pieces and the edges thinner ones.
The point, she explains, is texture. When fried, the thicker parts turn chewy and the thinner parts turn crispy, and she likes the two together. She admits she doesn't fully know why she came up with this particular method: "it's just what I do."
For the greens she uses cilantro, noting she doesn't have the genetic trait that makes it taste like soap. When she has run out, she has used arugula instead. Anything that adds "a peppery freshness" works, she says.
Comfort Food and Cooking With a Five-Year-Old
While chopping, Hadid mentions foods she can eat at any hour regardless of jet lag after a flight. One is a particular bean and cheese burrito. The other is an açaí bowl from Sunlife, which she calls an OG Malibu spot. It was also her sister Bella's first job at the smoothie counter, which got Gigi a friends-and-family discount, and she says the bowl is nostalgic for her.
When she does have time to cook, she says, it's usually while she's on "mom duty," which means a lot of chatting with her five-year-old. Sometimes her daughter wants to help. Other times she just wants the food to appear, and then she does art on the countertop, such as watercolors, crayons, and Play-Doh, while Hadid cooks.
Cooking the Pasta: Order and Timing
Hadid says there's "a method to the madness." The pasta goes on first because it should be done before the prosciutto is. While it boils, she talks about her Vogue France cover, shot by Willy Vanderperre. He shot her first Prada campaign, she has done several creative editorials with him, and she describes him as a calm, lovely spirit. She says she can't wait to see the cover.
Next she toasts the pine nuts and warns that they burn quickly. You can get distracted, think they need more time, and turn around to find them burnt. She takes them off once she smells them browning.
She heats roughly half a cup of olive oil, adjusted to the batch. Her rule of thumb is that the amount should look like it could coat all the pasta you're making. To test the heat, she drops in a small piece of prosciutto. When it sizzles, the oil is ready. Someone on set tastes the pasta and confirms it's done.
Crisping the Prosciutto and Building the Sauce
Once the prosciutto is in, she breaks up clumps with two utensils, saying two forks work too. She points out that the first piece she added is more reddish-brown, which shows it's reaching the right texture. The chunkier pieces become chewy and the smaller ones become crispy. Along the way she jokes that she never wears an apron and doesn't usually look this dressed up when cooking at home.
When the prosciutto is nearly crisp, she adds garlic, about a clove and a half per person, cooking here for about four people. Then she adds a good pinch of red pepper flakes to make the oil spicy.
She turns off the heat before adding the pasta. She explains that if you leave the pasta sitting in the hot oil, it starts to get crispy. She tosses it to coat, then adds a generous amount of Parmesan and the pine nuts. She sums up the balance as crispiness from the prosciutto and freshness from the greens. She adds that she has made the dish for her partner, who loves it.
Plating, Tasting, and Sharing
To plate, she tops the pasta with tomato, more greens, pine nuts, and cheese. She says the part guests will come back for is the crispy prosciutto bits, which she calls "crunchies" and "heaven," and says the dish is "good every time."
She then serves bowls to the crew, including her hairstylist Dimitris, who says it smells great. Everyone toasts and says "bon appétit," and she says they'll finish eating off camera.
She closes by thanking viewers for joining her dream of hosting her own cooking show. She asks them to make their own version of "me and Tim's pasta" and to tell her about any interesting substitutions they try.
And then I'm making more, and then we're all trying it. No? No? That's my French no.
Hey Vogue, it's Gigi. We are here today to make a couple of my favorite things, an Arnold Palmer and a pasta dish that I make more than most. Can't wait to show you.
The ingredients for today's Arnold Palmer are pretty simple: black tea, honey, lemons, water. You can always kind of mix and match flavors with this, so it's fun. Let's start with boiling the water. Now we wait it out.
The running theme here today is that Gigi doesn't measure a lot. It's going to be a lot to taste. You need to cook from the heart, people. That looks good. It's a huge pitcher. Let's just say four for this. We'll go about halfway up. That looks good. That's a big cup of tea. Just make sure again that the sugars from the honey are breaking down.
My first memory of modeling, it was a baby Guess campaign. I remember funny things like looking into the sun and thinking that if I could keep my eyes open while looking at the sun, that made me a really good model. I think that with experience and time, you just start to really understand your place in the process and also how to make everyone's job easier. And then of course, just like being and becoming more confident in myself as I've gotten older, especially with a child now. I think that so many life lessons come from obstacles and getting through things. And once you find those new confidences in yourself from your personal life, I think that they kind of trickle into every part.
Our honey is dissolved in the bottom. We're going to put this in the fridge so that it starts to cool down and become the iced tea while we make lemonade. Let's get our lemonade supplies.
How cute is that? I mean, anything yellow just gets me. And look at this. You knew, Jess. Did you know my favorite color was yellow? You could just feel it. We're going to chop some lemons halfsies.
Music when I shoot is really based on the creative of the day, the storytelling, the character, what she would listen to, what I want to feel, what I want my eyes to show. So, I need to be excited about the creative. I have half the time I used to. I am so lucky to get my baby girl half the time, and when she's with her dad is really when I work. So, I fit in jobs that inspire me, that I'm creatively aligned with, and that's kind of the non-negotiable these days.
All right, we're going to start juicing these babies. Get everything you can.
It's really wild to think that I've been on 50 international Vogue covers, or just like 50 covers at all. When I really think about that, I think about like how many days I've spent with these teams. Each day comes down to like an experience, right? I don't see just the photo of the cover. I remember the trip and the hotel we stayed at and just the personalities behind the image.
Okay, last one. With our juice king here. That's what it's called. And me, the juice queen. And that will be four cups. Perfect.
All right, time to put it all together. This is going to be a tasting situation. Let's add some lemon and see how we go. I'll just go faster. You know, we get messy. That's part of the fun. We're going to add a little more water there. You can add water, you can't take it away. So, it's like salt. I'm going to put more honey in it, too. All right, guys. We're going bobbing for tea bags.
Well, I think one of the best things about being a mom is just getting to experience all of life through little eyes. How present they are, how excited they are, and the questions they ask makes you look at everything in a new way.
Did we put four in there or three? Oh, four.
An amazing part about being a mom is that at times we're all going to feel like maybe it's something that we can't handle or can't get through. And the more that you do it, the more confidence you have in yourself, and it's just an amazing feeling.
That's really good. Da da da da. A little one of these. A little one of that. Heaven. Pasta, shall we?
This recipe came into my life during COVID. It was kind of towards the end when you could start traveling a bit, and we hosted my mom's best friend and her husband, who made us this recipe. So, now in our house we call it Tim's pasta. Shout out, Tim. It's Tim's pasta, Gigi's version.
Prosciutto, tomatoes, cilantro or parsley, and spaghetti you'll need, Parmesan cheese, olive oil. It's really an olive oil garlic kind of sauce that then you crisp up the prosciutto in. And red pepper flakes. I think that's also one of my additions, but I love a little spice. Add that, too. Let's start.
Chop up your tomatoes however you want. I'm going to cube them, but tomatoes taste the same in any shape.
The natural chef in my household is my dad. He can cook for 50 people like that, and the biggest thing I learned from my dad is cook with your heart. He's not a big measure either. It's really about tasting and smelling and feeling it out, and just cooking as another form of being creative. So, let's just get all our tomatoes together.
I've just been a student of television cooking for my entire life. Any day I was home from school, if I wasn't watching Forensic Files, I was watching cooking. I remember when I first came to New York, one of my biggest goals besides anything in modeling is that I wanted to be on cooking shows.
Over the years since learning this recipe, I've cut prosciutto a lot of different ways. I'm going to show you my technique of how I figured out a way to get different kind of like stacks and thinness on the prosciutto. You'll see, because when it then fries up, you'll have kind of like thicker, chewier parts and then thinner, crispier parts, and all of those coming together is really great. So, I call this my prosciutto flower. We are going to start taking them singularly, and as we put them down on the board, we're going to rotate them into a flower. Don't ask me more about why this works, cuz I don't fully even know why I came up with this, but it's just what I do.
Whenever I land in New York, there's a couple things that I can eat at any time of day regardless of my jet lag. One of them is the Sodal Norris bean and cheese burrito. I also can get an acai bowl from Sunlife, which is an OG Malibu spot and was also my sister Bella's first job. She worked at the smoothie counter, so I used to get friends and family discount on that, and that acai bowl is nostalgic for me.
So, first we go here. And now we go the opposite. So in the middle here you're getting kind of like chunkier pieces, and then on the edges they're thinner.
Usually if I have time to cook, it's when I'm on mom duty, so there's a lot of yapping with a 5-year-old. Sometimes she wants to help, sometimes she just wants to see the food appear, in which case we do a lot of art on the countertops. I'll be cooking here, she'll be watercoloring, crayons, Play-Doh, that kind of stuff.
Onto our cilantro. I do not have the genetic disadvantage of cilantro tasting like soap. Oh, I've also done it with arugula before when I've been out of this stuff. That's also good. It's kind of anything that gives it like a peppery freshness. Start my first chop. We're going to get into the flames of it all. I'll see you soon.
All right, time for pasta. So there's a method to the madness. Let's start with getting the pasta cooking, cuz we really want that done before our prosciutto's done.
Shooting the Vogue France cover is always exciting. Willy Vanderperre is someone who I've had amazing experiences with. Load our pasta in there. Willy shot my first Prada campaign. I've done some wonderful creative editorials with him, and I just find him to be such a calm, lovely spirit, and I can't wait to see it.
We're going to toast our pine nuts. This is something that you want to stay close to. Pine nuts can burn quickly.
A lot of my dad's cooking is beautiful Palestinian food that of course my teta cooked a lot, and she was the chef that taught him, so anytime we're making Middle Eastern food, Palestinian food, she's with us. It's comforting to me, and I love an eggs and za'atar, and I have a huge jar of za'atar in my kitchen that I cook with a lot.
Please hold on the pine nuts. But, don't hold too much. Like, you can get a little bit distracted. You can be like, "Oh, those need more time." And then you'll turn around and they're burnt. Okay, I can kind of start smelling. Oh, these are browning. There we go.
Olive oil, let's go like half a cup, depending on how much you're making. Please hold again. You want to make sure that it looks like however much oil you put could really coat all of the pasta you're making. We're going to let that start to heat up. And then I always take a little piece of prosciutto and see if it starts to sizzle. That's when you know it's ready.
Let's try the pasta. You look at all this. Huh? Authentic? Yeah, that's perfect. So, we will see this when the prosciutto's done.
Okay, that's starting to bubble and crisp up, so let's add our prosciutto. Two utensils, it can also be two forks, whatever you got, and kind of start to break up the parts that are too stuck together. We're getting different textures, different chunkiness, chewiness. This is the piece that I added first. So, it's a little bit more red, brown, and that's how you know it's getting to the right texture.
I do not wear an apron when I'm cooking. I don't usually look like this when I cook at home.
Hey, this is getting nice and crispy. But, see how like there's pieces that are chunkier like this? Those get really chewy. And then the smaller pieces get really crispy. It's so delicious.
We're almost here with the crispiness, so we're going to add garlic. Per person, let's add like a clove and a half. We're doing this for about four people. I'm going to save that. Oh, so, so good. And we're going to go like a good pinch. That will start to get the oil spicy.
Now it's time for the pasta. We're going to turn the heat off. Go for it. Coating all the pasta in the oil. If you just pour it in and leave it right in there, then the pasta will start to get crispy. So we're going to start to add our Parmesan. We going in with the big guns. Then I like to add my pine nuts. There's crispiness, and then there's a lot of freshness with the greens. I've definitely made this for my man. He loves this.
Okay, we can plate this. All right, guys. Let's taste it. You want to give your guests obviously the pasta, but the best part and what everyone will come back for are these crunchies. I'm telling you. They're heaven. A little tomato on top, little more greens, a little pine nuts, a little cheese. It's good every time. I swear.
Can I make more bowls? You guys ready? Dimitris! Oh my god. Oh my god, it smells so good. Pardon my thingies, but they're clean. Ladies voice. Good, right? Girl, talk about the textures. What we getting? What we getting? That tomato, girl. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Enjoy. Bon appétit. Period.
Cheers. Cheers, babe. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers, Maria. Cheers. Thanks everybody. We're going to finish this off camera so you don't have to watch us. Mwah.
All right, guys. That was so fun. Thank you so much for joining me in my dream come true of hosting my own cooking show. I loved it. I hope I don't have cilantro in my teeth, but please make your own version of me and Tim's pasta, and let me know if you add any cool substitutes to it. Cheers. Love you all.
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