2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Maria Scinto)
Giada De Laurentiis is a , (her grandfather Dino De Laurentiis was the producer of "King Kong" and a bazillion other movies) who's known for her big, toothy grin and over-enunciation. She's also strongly associated with the kind of food you'd only find on the menu of a very upscale restaurant. So, needless to say, her take on a bacon cheeseburger is about a million miles away from a Wendy's Baconator.
Instead of a ground beef patty, she uses lamb and mixes it meatloaf-style with breadcrumbs, egg, and various flavoring agents including sun-dried tomatoes, parsley, and pecorino romano (the last-named being the burger's sole cheesy component). As for the bacon, this part is played by , a type of . Prosciutto is thin-sliced, dry-cured pork, which means it doesn't require cooking before you can eat it.
It also tends to come in wider, flatter slices perfect for wrapping around a burger, which is what De Laurentiis does with her lamb patties before frying them. Once the burgers are cooked, she plops them on a plate (buns are simply too plebeian) and tops them with basil leaves, sliced tomatoes, and a decidedly un-ketchup-like mix of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Very fancy, indeed.
So much so, in fact, that if you made mini versions of these meat patties, they could be served as elegant hors d'oeuvres with the vinaigrette on the side. She's got a bunch of gourmet burger recipes If you're a fan of bougie burgers, Giada De Laurentiis has no shortage of ideas for you. While the aforementioned lamb burger seems to be as close as she gets to bacon cheeseburger territory, she does have what she calls a gourmet diner burger served on a ciabatta bun.
Unlike the burgers at any greasy spoon we've ever frequented (and there have been many), hers are topped with scratch-made pickled zucchini, parmesan crisps, and roasted garlic mayonnaise. While the diner burgers are made with a mixture of ground beef and lamb, De Laurentiis does have a few all-beef burger recipes, including Tuscan steak burgers topped with fried eggs, arugula, and tapenade; Caprese burgers dressed with mozzarella, tomatoes, and pesto mayonnaise; and "Giada-fied" burgers garnished with grilled onions, provolone, and a mashed avocado/lemon juice mixture (none dare call it guacamole). She also makes chive and rosemary-spiked pork smash burgers with garlic mayonnaise and arugula as well as fairly plain chicken burgers with similar toppings.
(In the latter case, though, there's rosemary in the mayo instead of the meat.) De Laurentiis has even been known to make lentil burgers, although with this dish she uses vegenaise doctored up with basil and lemon zest in place of her homemade mayo. Oddly enough, here she eschews her beloved arugula in favor of a butter lettuce topper, although avocados and sliced tomatoes once again put in an appearance.
Recommended.
