Ina Garten’s Thanksgiving Menu Will Make You Feel Warm & Cozy

Who doesn’t love Ina? During intense times, the beloved Barefoot Contessa is the human equivalent of tomato soup and grilled cheese: pure comfort. Ina’s Thanksgiving menu delivers in absolutely every sense, from looks to taste, whether you’re hosting a T Day for two or doing an al fresco feast.

Ina’s Thanksgiving Menu is live on our site, and it is glorious: ruby-hued pomegranate cocktails; a fabulous turkey roulade that will shave hours off your prep time; maybe the best pumpkin pie you’ll ever try.

The recipes are from the Comtessa’s newest cookbook, Modern Comfort Food. Each dish is entirely approachable, unfailingly reliable, and absolutely delicious—just three of the reasons Ina’s many fans adore her cooking.

What makes Ina’s menu so darn special? Read on, and get hungry.

1. That Turkey Roulade

Thinking that turkey roulade centerpiece looks too difficult? Nope; it’s a snap. As the video above illustrates, you make it using boneless turkey breast, saving fridge space and making it a faster prep. Everything good goes inside: garlic, rosemary, sage and Italian prosciutto. Rolling it up is as stress-dissolving as a good hot bath. Garnished with crisp sage and burnished to a golden sheen, we’d put it head to head with a whole bird for good looks.

2. The Starters

Gotta love a pitcher cocktail. They’re hands-off for a busy host, and people can pour to suit themselves. This pomegranate Cosmo is a welcome riff on the original, and a sunny mood-booster. Ina’s fig and cheese toasts as an appetizer are quick as can be. As Ina herself says,” “Jeffrey and I were having some friends for drinks and he couldn’t believe how quickly I put these appetizers together!” They’re like cream cheese and jelly sandwiches for grown-ups.

3. The Sides

Whoa, nelly. Ina does veggies as beautifully as she does everything else, and her Thanksgiving sides are no exception. There’s buttery cornbread stuffing, a unique fennel-spiked gratin heavy on Gruyère, creamy butternut squash ready in less than an hour, and sautéed shredded Brussels sprouts, a Jeffrey favorite. (It’s Ina, so you know it’s all fantastic.)

4. Those Ina Desserts

We know bakers for whom there are Ina recipes… and then there’s anyone else. Skim this applesauce cake recipe, see the words “bourbon cream cheese frosting,” and come back to us craving anything else for T Day dessert. We’ll wait. Then there’s her riff on pumpkin pie. She’s not a huge fan of the typical variation, which she finds “boring and dense,” so she makes her filling more of a mousse, spiking it with orange zest, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. She dollops rum-spiked whipped cream (!!) on top. It tastes like an Ina holiday miracle, which is exactly what it is.

Get hungry for Ina’s Thanksgiving menu right here!