Hello, COTM peeps, and welcome to the home for reporting on all Ina Garten recipes for Spring 2025 and beyond! To say she has given us a wealth to choose from is an understatement, between everything on the Food Network and publishing a cookbook roughly every other year since the turn of the millennium.
Here’s a handy reference to all that; note that the linked cookbook titles direct to the corresponding indexes on Eat Your Books, which themselves contain copious links to online recipe reprints, and also make it easy to search the internet for others by name.
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Let me start by saying I am thrilled to have an excuse to explore Ina’s books for a full three months! I own her first five, and of course, like most, have had numerous Ina recipes in my regular rotation at some point or another. Lately though, I haven’t cracked any of their spines so I am glad for this opportunity to bring them back into my orbit.
Today I will be making this very simple chicken liver pate from her website. It is different than the ones in her books, so I am a tiny bit wary because no reviews. Will report back tonight.
CAULIFLOWER TOASTS found here Barefoot Contessa | Cauliflower Toasts | Recipes
Had almost everything to do this, subbed thick bacon for prosciutto, and supermarket Swiss for Gruyere. (Sometimes you can be as fancy as a countess, but not every time.) The cauliflower topping was delicious anyway, I wish I’d roasted it until softer though. Plenty of flavor in these!
I used dried basil instead of fresh (because usual semi-valid excuses.) If you sub the dried herb for fresh you use way way less of course, I think I used about one quarter of the amount.
Had it hot this time, but this is delightful and I’ll use it chilled this summer I’m sure. The immersion blender made just the right texture, I thought.
I remember making this years ago. we had people working in the house, and one of them (who was normally very quiet) came to tell me how delicious it smelled.
I didn’t have a 9" pan so I used a smaller one, had to use medium-low instead of medium-high heat with my gas stove. Since I don’t enjoy cleaning my box grater, I used my knife to cut the cheese really small, it’s only 1/3 cup … best price for good Gruyere is at Costco. For herbs I used parsley and chives. Bit of chives on top before serving, too.
I didn’t use a fork in my nonstick pan, just a small silicone spatula and fish spatula.
I’d watched her do this with Frank Bruni on her show: “Be My Guest” If you like to eat omlettes it’s smart to learn how to make them. Since Ina prefers white plates for food, I served this on a plain white plate!
As long as I splash hot soapy water on my box grater after use I don’t mind washin’ it, but yes, all kinds of sink/spoon/saucer manipulation every day to corral the clean-up.
I’m foolish about decorative china and I sort of think plain white plates are the saddest thing–but I can see you’d wanna show off your foodie food if you are so good at it. She is the shoeless wonder after all. Next time in Costco, I’ll look for Gruyere, thank you for this info.
When someone you don’t really know tells you your food smells good it’s a nice compliment, yes?
p.s. @LulusMom1 you should try out “Recipes for Love and Murder” a TV show after all our hearts I think.
By the way, I love and trust her recipes but it really irks me that she’s the only one who specifies extra large eggs. I use large for everything, not gonna buy others just for her recipes.
Large seem to work just fine. (I think the only thing of hers I can think of offhand of hers that I’ve made requiring eggs is her stellar lemon cake, which I have made a number of times, and always using large eggs.)
This was a pleasant meal, but not one I will likely repeat. I skipped the mussels, and cut the recipe for just two, one of whom wants a lot of food on his plate. This second consideration was tempered by a full sheet of focaccia to go with the salad. She has you drop each kind of seafood into boiling water (+ salt and vinegar) separately for specified amounts of time. I had never cooked shrimp or scallops this way. Mine were both slightly overcooked (LLD thought they were fine, so maybe this is a me problem). For the dressing you heat olive oil and add thyme and garlic, then the zest, lemon juice, mustard, and vinegar. I found we needed a bit more acid, but I like acidic dressings. I served over butter lettuce. Overall liked it, and it would be a great meal for serving my parents- it feels special yet healthy, and there is nothing likely to surprise the unadventurous.
I’ve been dreaming about this ever since I saw @LulusMom1’s picture. It lived up to my expectations. I also skipped the mussels and served it over a bed of little gem. For me the dressing was a bit acidic and I added a smidge of orange marmalade. Served with a lot of toasted garlic baguette. I will definitely make it again.
I have a feeling I made this ages ago. I should have read through The recipe before making dinner. I make grits once a month or so, always using the quick 5 minute grits she calls for here, so it never occurred to me that it would take as long as she calls for. So I put my chicken sausages in the oven and started working on the grits and then saw that she wants them to cook for 45 minutes. Yikes. This explains my sad looking sausages. They spent more time in the oven than they should have (I DID turn it was down though). Basically you boil salted water, add the grits, cook for about 5 minutes, then add half and half and butter and cover … and cook for 45 minutes! Yikes. I will be honest with you: these do not need to cook that long. Anyway, once the time is up you add the cheese and scallions. This was pleasant. LLD tore through all the leftovers (in his defense, he has been doing a lot of biking recently). I liked them but wasn’t wow’d.
I like “5 minutes” grits cooked for about 10 minutes (2:1 water to grits). That’s the sweet spot for me. I’d expect 45 minutes if they were the coarse, artisanal ones!
