The Unexpected Super Food That Giada De Laurentiis Never Leaves The Grocery Store Without

What, exactly, is a superfood? There isn't any superfood list recognized by health professionals, but the label, despite being unpopular with dietitians, is often used by the media to describe any food that's both popular and healthy. Since there's no official body regulating things, even a celebrity chef can nominate their picks, and Giada De Laurentiis is backing a food that she considers to be highly underrated. 

Anchovies, De Laurentiis feels, deserve a lot more love, not least because they're so nutrient-dense. Not only are anchovies high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids, but one small serving provides over 50% of your recommended daily amount of both selenium and vitamin B3.

The reason De Laurentiis has been talking up superfoods is because she's promoting a cookbook called "Super-Italian: More Than 110 Indulgent Recipes Using Italy's Healthiest Foods." While the book highlights many nutritious ingredients, anchovies do feature in quite a few recipes, and she also gives them a shout-out in the intro: "When southern Italian cooks incorporate anchovies ... into dishes, it's a healthier, less fatty way to add flavor than loading them down with cheese or salt."

Anchovies may be one of the more unpopular pizza toppings, but even if you wouldn't dream of ordering them in place of pepperoni, you may already be familiar with the flavor. As Giada De Laurentiis points out in an interview with Food & Wine, anchovies are a standard ingredient in Caesar salad dressing. They are also often the main ingredient in many types of fish sauce. Anchovy paste features in the elegantly named Green Goddess dressing and can be combined with garlic, oil, and lemon to make a flavorful anchovy vinaigrette.

If you're ready to venture beyond salad dressing, you can mix anchovies with linguine and broccoli in a simple pasta dish or use them to flavor Sicilian beef with olives. They're one of the main components of our four-ingredient gremolata along with parsley, garlic, lemon, olive oil, and black pepper. (Okay, so that's six ingredients, but we're terrible at math.) For anyone into retro appetizers, we've got you covered here as well, with a recipe for Ritz crackers topped with boiled eggs and anchovies. Here's a secret Scinto family creation (that's me, in case you didn't read the byline): orange slices topped with anchovies. It may sound weird, but the sweet-tangy-salty flavor combo seems like something Giada might go for.