Giada De Laurentiis' Pesto Artichoke Dip Uses This Unique Ingredient

Pesto is one of those traditional recipes that actually fare well with a bit of tweaking. This sauce, which hails from Genoa, Italy, only has a handful of ingredients, including pine nuts, garlic, basil, olive oil, and Parmesan Reggiano. The essence of pesto can still be kept with a few changes — like incorporating walnuts instead of pine nuts, or adding lemon zest for a bit of zing. Giada De Laurentiis, the Rome-born Italian-American chef and TV personality, naturally has her own spin on pesto; in her pesto dip, the secret ingredient is arugula.

In an Instagram video, De Laurentiis shares the recipe for the dip, which she makes in her food processor. It contains artichoke, raw garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, basil, salt, oregano, and arugula — and a lot of it. She packs about 3 cups of the latter ingredient into the food processor before blending the mixture coarsely.

The dip looks thick and creamy but less dense than regular pesto. It's also a lighter shade of green than normal — and remember that you can add ice cubes to keep the green more vibrant. The chef eats the dip with tortilla chips, but she says that it could also be used on top of pasta as a pesto sauce.

Traditional pesto is pretty concentrated: It's a thick, salty sauce, and a little bit of it goes a long way when adding to pasta or spreading on a sandwich. But if you want to use it as a dip, as Giada De Laurentiis does in her video, traditional pesto will be overwhelmingly strong. Arugula thins out the sauce and makes larger quantities of it more palatable. Stretching it out this way makes the dip more shareable and cost-efficient (especially if you decide to add pine nuts!).

If you struggle to get leafy greens into your diet, this pesto dip is a perfect way to do so. De Laurentiis describes her dip as a "superfood bomb" because it's made of nutrient-dense ingredients. Arugula, a cruciferous vegetable, is high in Vitamin K, Vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, and fiber. If you have leafy greens that need to be used up, you can also add these to the pesto.

Arugula also brings a unique flavor that isn't typically present in pesto. The sauce normally has a salty, herbal flavor with umami from the parmesan. By contrast, arugula adds bright, fresh flavors with a touch of spiciness. Pesto is quite rich, but the inclusion of this vegetable lightens it up. Incorporating it as well as some of the other ingredients De Laurentiis uses like lemon and artichoke, could be a great way to improve store bought pesto.