Giada De Laurentiis' Top Recipes of the Year Reveal an Unexpected Trend

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The end of the year can be bittersweet, as we say goodbye to some of the happy memories we made and face the fact that we need to start coming up with some New Year’s resolutions we can actually stick to. But if there’s one thing we always love about this time of year, it’s the year-end wrap-ups. From our Spotify Wrapped playlists loaded with way more Carly Rae Jepsen songs than we wanted to admit, to the “best movies of the year” lists that help us fill the long, cold weekends in January, it’s fun to look back at what made this year special…and tasty. Giada De Laurentiis (author of Giada’s Italy: My Recipes for La Dolce Vita) just shared her list of the top recipes on her Giadzy blog, and while all of them sound delicious, there was one unexpected trend that had not one, but two spots in her top five.

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De Laurentiis’ most popular recipes include several old favorites. Her Simple Bolognese and legendary Lemon Spaghetti lead the list, followed by the recipe for her homemade pizza dough. But rounding out the list are two surprisingly similar recipes: Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and Sicilian Tomato Pesto. Do we smell a new food trend?

Courtesy of Clarkson Potter.

As De Laurentiis explains on her website “there are all kinds of pesto sauces in Italy,” not just the green basil-based pesto you might be familiar with.

Her Sicilian Tomato Pesto, which is called “Pesto Alla Trapanese” in Italy, is a blend of sweet cherry tomatoes, toasted almonds, garlic, basil, olive oil, and Parmesan, along with some seasoning. After a blitz in the food processor, the pesto takes on a surprisingly creamy texture, and it can be used in a variety of ways — “serve tossed with pasta and fresh mozzarella, as a spread on crostini, on vegetables or protein,” suggests De Laurentiis.

Then there’s her Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto recipe. We always keep a jar of sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil in the pantry as a shorcut to flavor in some of our favorite quick weeknight meals, and they also come in handy if you want to make a robustly flavorful tomato pesto.

Courtesy of Pickerfresh.

The sun-dried tomato pesto De Laurentiis makes on her website is super simple, with a rich, concentrated tomato flavor thanks to using both sun-dried tomatoes and the oil they’re packed in to make the sauce. It’s blended with garlic, basil, and Parm, and makes a hearty, chunky pesto that can be tossed with pasta, used as a sandwich spread, or dolloped onto roasted meats and seafood as a condiment. (And for those days when you’re feeling lazy? You can buy pre-made sun-dried tomato pesto in a jar. Score!)