I've found that Ina Garten has some incredible breakfast recipes. Trent Pheifer
- I've spent years cooking all 1,300+ of celebrity chef Ina Garten's recipes.
- My favorite breakfast recipes include truffled scrambled eggs and blueberry-ricotta breakfast cake.
Most weekday mornings, I snooze my alarm multiple times, leaving me barely enough time to inhale a plain but reliable bowl of oatmeal with fruit before dashing out for work.
Weekend breakfasts, however, are a whole different story. I love to leisurely spend time in the kitchen, enjoying a fresh cup of coffee while preparing my favorite meal of the day.
For morning inspiration, I often turn to Ina Garten — after all, I gained my cooking education by working through all of her over 1,350 recipes.
She's got a lot of great breakfast recipes, but these 10 are my favorites.
Her short-rib hash is easy to adapt.
The short-rib hash contains Brussels sprouts. Trent Pheifer
"Cook Like a Pro," page 244
This flavorful hash bowl has bacon, sautéed onion, crispy Yukon potatoes, shredded Brussels sprouts, tender short ribs, and a splash of Sriracha for a bit of a kick.
I was hesitant to include this dish on my list — it's a favorite of mine, but the recipe assumes you have leftover short ribs handy. That's a pretty rare occurrence for me.
But this hearty dish is so good that it's worth cooking a big batch of short ribs the day before just to make it. Even so, this dish is pretty adaptable. If you don't have short ribs, just swap in your preferred protein.
It's easy to whip up breakfast ricotta with berries and maple syrup.
You can dip pastries and fruit in the breakfast ricotta. Trent Pheifer
"Make It Ahead," page 240
Since I started making my own ricotta at home, I've completely ditched the store-bought kind, which, in my humble opinion, doesn't even compare. Homemade is incredibly simple, and it makes all the difference in uncomplicated dishes like this one.
To assemble this dish, top the ricotta with toasted almonds in a buttery maple-syrup sauce, add your preferred berries, and serve it with toasted brioche or challah. It's that easy!
Garten's country-fresh omelets are a crowd-pleaser.
I usually make large batches of Ina Garten's omelets. Trent Pheifer
"Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics," page 227
This is my favorite of Garten's various omelet recipes. The country-fresh dish is a straightforward combination of eggs, crispy potatoes, smoky bacon, and chives.
The recipe is designed to serve two, but I usually adjust the recipe to create a larger batch using a sheet plan. It's always a crowd-pleaser.
The sour-cream coffee cake is a good breakfast or dessert.
The sour-cream coffee cake has two layers of streusel. Trent Pheifer
"Barefoot Contessa Parties!," page 37
I love that we've officially sanctioned certain desserts as breakfast foods — and one of my favorites is Garten's sour-cream coffee cake.
The best part of a coffee cake is the streusel, and she ensures that each bite has some by incorporating a layer of it in the middle and on top of the dish.
I pair herbed baked eggs with toasty bread.
The herbed baked eggs are easy to prepare. Trent Pheifer
"Barefoot in Paris," page 64
Once I introduced this straightforward egg dish to my parents, it became one of their favorites.
To make it, we cook two eggs under the broiler with butter and cream. Then, we adorn them with a mix of garlic, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and Parmesan.
We also like to use toasted bread to scoop up all of the eggy deliciousness.
Garten's potato pancakes with fried eggs are delicious.
The potato pancakes are tender and crisp. Trent Pheifer
BarefootContessa.com
These potato pancakes have a tender interior and a wonderfully crispy exterior, which is achieved by pan-frying them in clarified butter.
In this recipe, they're also topped with a fried egg. The runny yolk pairs well with the crispy bits of potato.
The blueberry-ricotta breakfast cake is perfectly sweet.
The breakfast cake is incredibly moist. Trent Pheifer
"Go-To Dinners," page 71
I usually prefer savory breakfasts over sweet ones, but Garten's blueberry-ricotta breakfast cake is an exception — I'd gladly eat it any morning.
This cake is brimming with blueberries and has a delightful hint of lemon zest. Plus, it's incredibly moist due to the addition of ricotta and sour cream.
Truffled scrambled eggs feel luxurious.
Ina Garten's truffled scrambled eggs use truffle butter. Trent Pheifer
"Cook Like a Pro," page 251
Garten's scrambled eggs with shaved truffles were an expensive disappointment. However, her soft scramble featuring the much more budget-friendly truffle butter was a winner in my book.
Cooking with truffle butter is a simple way to elevate a basic breakfast.
Garten's triberry oven pancakes taste good and look impressive.
These pancakes seem to defy gravity when they come out of the oven. Trent Pheifer
"Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics," page 237
If you want to impress your guests with minimal effort, try Garten's sweet Dutch babies.
In the oven, the liquid batter seems to magically transform into a high, gravity-defying shell that creates the perfect vessel to fill with berries, maple syrup, and powdered sugar.
Her smoked-salmon tartine elevates basic avocado toast.
The smoked-salmon tartine gets topped with a tasty sauce and red onion. Trent Pheifer
"Cook Like a Pro," page 247
Avocado toast might have a reputation for being a bit basic, but I still love it — especially when you elevate it as Garten does here.
In this recipe, she tops avocado with smoked salmon, thinly sliced red onion, and a flavorful, spicy-sweet, mustardy gravlax sauce for the perfect breakfast bite.