Giada De Laurentiis Brightens Up Her Burgers With A Juicy Italian Twist

Giada De Laurentiis is always upping her Italian cooking game, and if you are looking for a burger recipe to drool over, she offers an Italian twist you might want to add to your repertoire. While pesto sauce is generally reserved for coating beautiful shapes of cooked pasta, the California chef with international flair adds this green, herby, and garlicky favorite to her Caprese burgers, and the result is mouthwatering. But she doesn't use it as a condiment. Per her website, the "Bobby and Giada in Italy" host mixes it right into her ground beef. What does this accomplish?

This addition actually has several positive effects on your burgers. Pesto sauce is flavorful, but in a burger, all of its components are magnified. You aren't just tasting the basil. The saltiness of parmesan is transferred to the beef, along with the subtle hint of the mild taste of pine nuts. And because olive oil is a key component, that added fat is going to keep these burgers juicy as they cook on the grill or on your stovetop in your cast-iron pan.

Giada De Laurentiis doesn't stop with the pesto when making her Caprese burgers. To keep the Italian vibe going, she melts a slice of fresh mozzarella cheese on each patty. She serves them on grilled focaccia bread, but if you prefer the bite of a regular hamburger bun, the chef notes that will work too.  She tops this burger with a slice of tomato and homemade pesto-flavored mayo to intensify the flavors in the meat. This is anything but a bland burger, and it's quite easy to customize it to fit your taste buds' Italian desires. 

Try using a cilantro pesto for a bright, peppery taste, or if you are trying to get the kiddos to eat more veggies, try a broccoli pesto. Chances are they won't know the difference. Still, if you really want to mix things up, you can top your burgers with De Laurentiis' 6-ingredient white pesto sauce, which uses walnuts, ricotta, parmesan, lemon, olive oil, and garlic. It will give your burger a pasta alfredo vibe that is delish. And, of course, if you don't have time to make a homemade pesto, don't worry. Store-bought will work just fine.