The Top 10 Most Popular Recipes of 2020
Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! It’s the last day of what has been an icky, can’t-wait-to-see-the-back-of-it year (good riddance, 2020) but there have been some high notes, too. After all, I adopted a wonderful, fluffy, quirky dog this year, I mastered tricky, taunting trofie, I revamped my beloved blog, and I managed a bit of travel (the Amalfi Coast and Portugal!). I’m very much enjoying the lazy, relaxing stretch of time between Christmas and New Year, one where the weather has been slightly gray, Rome is in holiday lockdown, and my workplace is closed (translation: perfect conditions for staying in, cooking, cuddling said dog, and strolling around St. Peter’s, see photo above).
And on yet another positive note! —
It’s time for Pancakes & Biscotti’s annual Top Recipes post! Below you’ll find the blog’s ten most popular, most viewed, and most clicked on recipes of 2020. The verdict: you’re a dynamic bunch, your favorite dishes making for a mix of savory and sweet, Italian and American, vegetarian and otherwise. Read on!
10. PASTA ALLA GRICIA
Coming in at number 10, pasta alla gricia is Italian cuisine at its finest, a dish that exemplifies simplicity and allows a few choice ingredients to shine. Sharp, sheep-y, salty Pecorino is grated fine and combined with starchy pasta water, magically creating a luxurious sauce to coat the pasta of your choosing, accented by thick matchsticks of unapologetically rich, rib-sticking guanciale (a subtle dish it is not). Click here for the recipe!
9. best BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
These Blueberry Muffins are quite possibly the perfect breakfast treat; they’re packed to the brim with blueberries – making for jammy, sweet-tart, impossibly blueberry splendor – are soft and tender and mildly lemony, and are excellent warm out of the oven to accompany a cappuccino. Having said this, they are also just as good eaten as a snack during your third Zoom meeting of the day (camera off, of course). Click here for the recipe!
8. $250 Neiman marcus cookies
Legend has it that a woman lunching at the upscale Neiman Marcus Cafe enjoyed the cookies she ate there so much that she asked for the recipe, only to be told that the secret to making the cookies would cost her $250. Whatever the real story is, these cookies — packed with chocolate, almonds and oatmeal — would be worth every cent, and I’m not the least bit surprised they made the top 10 this year. Click here for the recipe!
7. Strawberry Cheesecake
This cheesecake rang in the blog’s sixth birthday this year and takes the #7 spot for 2020. It is quite possibly my favorite cheesecake I’ve ever baked: here we have a crisp, buttery cookie crust which contains the silkiest of fillings in all its tangy, vanilla-bean flecked, lemon-scented glory, exalted even further with a generous spoonful of a tart-sweet and ever-so-purely strawberry sauce. Yummm. Click here for the recipe.
6. TIELLA DI VERDURE
This tiella di verdure is a bit of culinary magic; here we layer uncooked rice and vegetables, cover it all with splash of water, bake it, and watch as it emerges triumphantly from the oven, the tomatoes juicy, the potatoes soft and creamy, the zucchini tender, the onions sweet, the rice perfectly cooked, and the water (gasp!) nowhere to be found. Our tray of watery veg and inedible rice becomes golden brown, crisp in some places and juicy in others, with a bite of Parmesan and garlic and hint of basil along the way. .Click here for the recipe!
5. Almond Panna cotta
This panna cotta is one of the best desserts to have ever come out of my kitchen, and another great recipe from Letitia Clark’s stellar cookbook, Bitter Honey. This is a panna cotta that is softly wobbly (a little unsteady on its feet) and unapologetically rich, smooth and creamy and infused with toasted almonds and flecks of (small but mighty) vanilla bean. The grand finale: sweet, juicy cherries -- tipsy with rosé -- to add a little complexity to a beautiful dessert. Click here for the recipe!
4. ROASTED EGGPLANT BURGERS
A burger that swaps the beef for still-substantial eggplant, their flavor deepened and intensified with a little roasting, held together with some breadcrumbs for texture and a little Parmesan for punch. Add tangy lemon juice, spicy garlic, and summery, fresh-from-my-balcony-garden basil, and we’ve got a winner, a true dish in its own right and miles away from the feeble vegetarian alternatives you usually come across (this is no pile of lettuce, my friends). Click here for the recipe.
3. Easiest Veggie Burgers
Taking the #3 spot this year, these burgers require just a few pantry-friendly ingredients (making them perfect fare during the Spring lockdown) and are super simple to throw together . The white beans offer the ever-sought after protein vegetarians seek, their mild flavor livened up with sharpness from the vinegar and sweetness from the carrots. Thanks to eggs and breadcrumbs, these do not fall apart during cooking -- a common pitfall of the veggie burger -- and when served with oven-roasted fries and a little lemon-y mayonnaise (or whatever topping you wish) they are blissful. Click here for the recipe.
2. ricotta gnocchi
'Ndunderi are gnocchi made with ricotta and Pecorino cheese, and hail from Minori on the Amalfi Coast; they are far easier and faster to make than potato gnocchi -- no boiling or ricing of piping hot potatoes! -- and are different in texture, sturdier with a little more bite thanks to the addition of semola. They are wonderful when served in melted butter (what isn't?) especially when that butter is cut with a little lemon juice, spiced up with a few grounds of black pepper, and cooked with sweet, Spring-y peas. Click here for the recipe.
1. Zucchini fritters
**And the envelope please!** Taking the #1 spot in 2020 with nearly 1,000 views are these humble but oh-so-delicious zucchini fritters (pause for applause.) These little gems are crisp and golden brown on the outside and tender on the inside, not to mention easy as pie, a matter of a little grating, stirring, and frying. Mild, slightly meek zucchini is livened up here with basil and Parmesan, two ingredients that leave everything better than they found it. Bonus: they also made (or make, depending on what hemisphere you’re in) excellent use of the annual haul of summer zucchini your garden likes to throw at you. (Zucchini Fritter would like to thank its fans, family, agent, and all those who supported him on his journey to first place.) Click here for the recipe!
And just like that — another year of blogging in the books! I’ll be back in 2021 rested and ready to go with some new recipes and line-ups (I’m in the process of planning my posts for the next few months, so feel free to shoot me an email at pancakesbiscottiblog@gmail.com if you have any requests — all suggestions and input welcome). Until next year, everyone!