Simply Ina: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook - Hardcover

Garten, Ina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593234170 ISBN 13: 9780593234174

Publisher: Clarkson Potter, 2026

Synopsis

A brand-new collection of 85 easy yet impressive recipes for every meal of the day, from make-ahead lunches to effortless appetizers and showstopping dinners, from America’s favorite home cook

Through her years of experience as a home cook, Ina Garten has learned that the best food is often the simplest. With just a little thought and a few good ingredients, you can make truly impressive dishes without spending hours in the kitchen. Simply Ina celebrates the delicious results of streamlined cooking, sharing Ina’s expert tips and tricks for achieving the best flavor with the least amount of effort.

Each recipe in this book has a secret that makes preparing it easier than you thought. Some dishes rely on smart store-bought shortcuts—like Mashed Potato & Leek Soup so delicious no one will ever guess it’s made with packaged mashed potatoes and Bourbon Baked Beans that dress up canned baked beans with smoked bacon, maple syrup, and good bourbon—because sometimes store-bought really is just fine! For seamless gatherings, Ina’s deeply flavorful Provencal Chicken with Olives & Capers can be made ahead and reheated in its Dutch oven before dinner, and the crispy oatmeal topping on her Cherry Berry Crumble can be prepped in advance for easy assembly in the moment. Elegant dishes like Endive & Avocado Salad and Irish Coffee Affogato involve little more than assembling ingredients, allowing you to serve something special without really cooking at all.

Whether you’re feeding unexpected guests, pulling together a Tuesday night dinner after work, or hosting a dinner party and don’t want to miss all the fun cooped up in the kitchen, you’ll be happy to have these simple, satisfying, and completely doable recipes to turn to. Because simple food shouldn’t just save you time; it should let you enjoy the people you love.

About this title

About the Author

Ina Garten is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and the host of Be My Guest and Barefoot Contessa on Food Network and HBO Max, for which she has won five Emmy Awards and three James Beard Awards. She lives in East Hampton, New York, with her husband, Jeffrey.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Simple Not Fancy Food

It’s not easy to make something simple (and delicious).

When I first started cooking, I thought that to be great, food had to be complicated. When I was teaching myself to cook by working my way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking I struggled with fancy techniques like “cook in a bain-marie,” long prep lists, and recipes with ingredients that were recipes in themselves—I thought surely those were the secrets to impressive meals. But after decades of cooking, I’ve learned something far more important: the best food is often the simplest. Truly delicious dishes don’t require hours of hands-on time in the kitchen. They just need a little thought and a few good ingredients, preferably in season.

This book is all about cooking simply, making the kind of food that fits into your real life. Whether you’re making dinner after a long day at work, hosting friends for a cozy weekend supper, or pulling together a last-minute meal because plans changed (and they always do!), I want you to feel completely confident that you can cook something delicious without a fuss and it won’t just be fine, it will be wonderful.

Simple doesn’t necessarily mean you can just slap together a few ingredients and put them on the table, though. It’s about cooking with intentionality, investing your time, money, and effort where it counts most so you can focus on the things that really matter, like making your guests feel welcome.

The opposite of cooking simply is what I often see on social media, with people throwing in one ingredient after another to create BIG flavor. It may seem more sophisticated, but for me, it’s just confusing; do all those additions actually make the dish taste better? Good food is a little like a gorgeous dress; if the fabric and the cut are beautiful, it doesn’t need a lot of sequins, ruffles, and bows. It just is beautiful.

That’s why I’m always looking for ways to simplify my cooking. Every recipe in every book goes through the same drill: Does each ingredient earn its place in the recipe? Is the ingredient important enough to the final dish for me to buy it, prep it, and add it? Does it enhance the star ingredient, or does it compete with it? And is there an easier way to create the flavor and texture I’m looking for?

Over the past thirty years that I’ve been writing cookbooks, I’ve found many ways to simplify a recipe. I buy best-in-class ingredients that don’t need a lot of enhancement to taste amazing. I rely on kitchen tools like a stick blender and a rice cooker that save so much work. And instead of constantly fiddling with something cooking on the stovetop, I put it in the oven, set a timer, and just forget about it.

Each recipe in this book has a secret that makes preparing it easier than you thought. I’ve labeled them to highlight their superpowers, whether it can be made or prepped ahead; assembled using a good store-bought ingredient; made in a single bowl or pot to make cleanup easy; or cooked really, really quickly. Some are so easy I’ve actually labeled them “barely cooking”! In a world where everyone is overbooked, overstressed, and communicating via screens all day rather than in person, connecting around a beautifully set table with delicious, simple food can be the most healing thing you can do for the people you love.

Some recipes in this book come together especially quickly with little or no time spent at the stove. My Cheddar & Chive Omelet (page 80) has a short ingredient list and cooks in just minutes. The Roasted Halibut with Potato Chip Crust (page 119), which looks and tastes more like a restaurant meal, goes from pantry to table in less than half an hour. And if you don’t consider toasting bread cooking, my Fig, Blue Cheese & Prosciutto Tartines (page 68) and Strawberries Romanoff (page 172) don’t require any cooking at all!

In other cases, I rely on prepared products from the grocery store, like pasta sauce or mashed potatoes, to jump-start a recipe. (There really are times when I think that “store-bought is just fine.”) When I do, though, I often use them as an ingredient, not as a final product. For example, when I add slowly cooked garlic, half-and-half, and lots of seasoning to store-bought prepared mashed potatoes, they taste like they were made from scratch—and I haven’t peeled a single potato!

My Cabbage & Sprout Slaw (page 160) starts with a bag of shredded coleslaw mix plus a bag of shredded Brussels sprouts, so not only do you not have to cut up the veggies, you aren’t left with half a cabbage knocking around in your refrigerator drawer. And because the recipe is made in one bowl, you don’t end up with a sink full of dishes and graters, either. Roast Duck Legs with Cherry Sauce (page 105) starts with cooked confit duck legs that I order online and keep in the freezer. All I need to do is reheat the duck so the skin is nice and crispy, and I make a sauce with basically three ingredients—mustard, red currant jelly, and dried cherries. Voilà! Dinner is served.

I even figured out how this would work for dessert. My Raspberry Cheesecake (page 194) starts with a cheesecake from a bakery that I top with fresh raspberries and a shortcut raspberry sauce that is thickened with a jar of good jam! No need to spend anxious minutes staring at the oven door wondering whether the cheesecake is done so it doesn’t crater in the middle when it cools!

I should add that using store-bought shortcuts isn’t a universal silver bullet. There were a lot of dishes that didn’t make the cut. Baking mixes always taste like baking mixes; their texture and flavor cannot be masked even by adding good chocolate and pure vanilla extract to the batter. I tried all the brands of mashed potatoes, from boxed flakes to refrigerated prepared potatoes, to find the brand that has the best flavor. I did the experimenting so you don’t have to, and you’ll find my choices right there in the recipes. It wasn’t always easy, but it was so much fun to test them all. I’ve listed some of my favorite store-bought ingredients on page 20 so you can keep your fridge and pantry stocked just like I do.

The recipes that I find myself using over and over again are those you can make entirely ahead of time, or that can be prepped and assembled in advance, then finished right before serving. And that is actually the secret to a great dinner party—when the hosts are having as much fun as the guests.

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarkson Potter
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593234170
• ISBN 13: 9780593234174
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256