Ina Garten shares a go-to list of six simple recipes everyone should master.The lineup ranges from roast chicken to a basic salad vinaigrette.Learning to make these recipes can help grow confidence and improve skills in the kitchen.
Whether becoming a better cook is on your to-do list this year or you’re hoping to help a friend—or even your kids—feel more comfortable in the kitchen, mastering kitchen basics can be intimidating. Luckily, developing a list of a few simple but delicious recipes you can whip up quickly is a great way to gain enough confidence in the kitchen to really begin to explore the world of cooking.
Ina Garten recently addressed a reader question in the “Ask Ina” section of her Substack newsletter that deals with this very subject. “Thank you for your great tips [for beginner home cooks],” the reader wrote, referring to a previous issue of the newsletter. “I do have one question: What recipes of yours would you say are six staples?”
Garten’s answer was a delicious-sounding list of dishes the Barefoot Contessa describes as “six really good recipes” designed for “practicing over and over again.”
The mouth-watering list starts with Perfect Roast Chicken, a simple way to roast a whole chicken that Amy Poehler recently praised when Garten was a guest on the Good Hang With Amy Poehler podcast. The recipe starts with a whole chicken, salted, peppered and stuffed with goodies like lemon, garlic and thyme. Garten’s recipe comes complete with a pro chicken-roasting tip: For the best, most even roast, tie the chicken’s legs together with twine and tuck its wings beneath its body.
Next up is Garten’s Weeknight Bolognese, a pasta dish with a tomato-based meat sauce that cooks quickly while the pasta cooks in boiling water. The tomato-based sauce is one Sarah Jessica Parker has spoken about in the past, saying her husband, Matthew Broderick, often makes Ina’s recipe for dinner for their family.
Other main courses on Garten’s list are her Mustard-Roasted Fish, an easy recipe that’s a favorite of former Today Show anchor Hoda Kotb, and her Rack of Lamb recipe, a method of roasting lamb that requires only a few simple ingredients like fresh rosemary, Dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar.
For the breakfast or brunch crowd, Garten lists her Potato Basil Frittata, a simple but tasty egg dish that she also recommended for her make-ahead holiday entertaining menu last year. And for an impressive, delicious side dish, Garten recommends mastering her Green Salad Vinaigrette, a five-ingredient salad dressing that’s perfect for tossing into a simple green salad to impress your dinner guests.
Garten calls the list, “simple recipes that anyone can make,” and even throws in a few “bonus recipes” for the overachievers. Also on Garten’s must-learn recipe list are her Orzo with Roasted Vegetables, Roasted Broccolini (another Hoda Kotb favorite) and Herbed New Potatoes.
“Once you’ve mastered these,” Garten writes in the newsletter, “I’d go on to the Charlie Bird Salad. It’s a salad, a vegetable and a grain, and it’s served at room temperature so you can make it ahead.” Garten has shared her love of this simple salad before, calling it a “lighter dinner” that’s “so delicious and satisfying that no one minds.”
Garten’s list gives us lots of recipes we can’t wait to try, many of which would be perfect for cozy winter dinner parties, romantic Valentine’s Day dinners and easy weeknight meals. And because they’re all approachable for beginner cooks, you can get in some no-pressure practice that results in something fresh and satisfying.
Dining and Cooking