8 Ina Garten Approved Store-Bought Ingredients and 4 She Prefers to Make From Scratch
Ina Garten is known for her love of “good ” ingredients, and on occasion, she says “store-bought is fine.” But which store-bought ingredients are Barefoot Contessa approved, and what should be made from scratch? Here’s what the Food Network star has to say.
Ina Garten has a list of 8 approved store-bought ingredients
1. Pound Cake
One of Garten’s favorite store-bought items she keeps stocked in the kitchen is pound cake. She says you can make your own, but asks “why would you?”
2. Vanilla Ice Cream
When Garten tells her fans that from time to time, store-bought is fine, she doesn’t mean it’s okay to pass off an item you bought at the store as your own. Instead, she’s trying to save you time in the kitchen — making it clear that not everything has to be made from scratch.
She advises to “get the good stuff” that is “just as good as homemade.” Garten says that store-bought ice cream and sorbet make it easy to create her Raspberry Baked Alaskas.
3. Truffle Butter
While talking with the Food Network about the store-bought ingredients she loves, Garten admitted that she’s obsessed with white truffle butter. Her favorite brands are D’Artagnan and Urbani Truffles.
“It really turns up the volume on everything from simple scrambled eggs to elegant fettuccine,” Garten explains. “I order like six of these and keep them in the freezer.”
4. Marinara Sauce
When Garten is making a dish like Eggplant Gratin and needs “good” marinara sauce, she turns to Rao’s.
“I mean, by the time you cooked the eggplant, sliced all the ingredients, and assembled it, who wants to start making marinara sauce?” Garten asks.
5. Lemon Curd
Garten says that when she’s making her Fresh Lemon Mousse, there’s one store-bought item that’s always included.
“I often use good-quality store-bought preserves and sauces, like lemon curd,” she says.
6. Caramel Sauce
When making her fabulous Salted Caramel Brownies, Garten drizzles “good” store-bought caramel sauce over them. Her preferred brand is Fran’s.
7. Pesto
Another store-bought ingredient that Garten always keeps in her kitchen is pesto. The Food Network star says she uses it “in so many ways,” like Winter Minestrone. She adds that “it’s fabulous on open-faced mozzarella-and-tomato sandwiches.”
8. Puff Pastry
Garten loves frozen puff pastry, and she uses it in a number of recipes — like her Easy Sticky Buns, Palmier Cookies, and her all-time favorite dessert, Apple Galettes.
“I always buy ready-made puff pastry and phyllo dough for sweet and savory tarts and appetizers. I mean, why would you make it?” Garten says. “Believe me if you had to make it yourself, you would never make palmiers.”
Ina Garten says these four ingredients should be made from scratch
1. Vanilla extract
Garten really, really loves vanilla. She told The Food Network‘s FN Dish in 2018 that it’s her favorite flavor. She’s actually been making her own vanilla extract for decades. She even called her jar of vanilla extract her “favorite thing in the kitchen” while giving NYT Cooking a tour in a November 2020 YouTube video.
2. Breadcrumbs
Garten says that when it comes to breadcrumbs, this is one of those times when “homemade is better than store-bought.”
“Store-bought breadcrumbs are dry and (homemade) have much more flavor and much more crunch,” she says.
3. Ricotta Cheese
Once the Food Network star discovered how easy it was to make fresh ricotta cheese, she decided that store-bought was no longer fine.
4. Grated parmesan
Garten also recommends grating your own Parmesan because it’s fresher and has a better texture to it.
“I actually always grate Parmesan myself, because when you buy it grated, you have no idea what you’re getting,” she explained. “It could be something like Parmesan, and you want the real thing.”
The Barefoot Contessa episodes are available on Discovery+.
