Ina Garten Is Ditching Mashed Potatoes for This 5-Ingredient, Make-Ahead Thanksgiving Recipe (2024)

Po-tay-to, po-tah-to—no matter how you say it, spuds are one of the must-have ingredients of any traditional Thanksgiving menu. And our favorite entertaining ace Ina Garten agrees. On Instagram, Garten shared how she adapted her recipes for her "#microthanksgiving" for a table for four in 2020.

Despite the smaller scale, the flavor is large on Garten's Thanksgiving menu, it seems, with Haricots Verts with Hazelnuts and Dill, Chipotle Smashed Sweet Potatoes and Herb and Apple Bread Pudding on deck—as well as this easy potato casserole we can't wait to recreate.

"Instead of mashed potatoes, this year I'm making a potato dish with a twist: Potato-Fennel Gratin. It's rich and creamy and infused with onions, fennel and Gruyère cheese," Garten explains in the caption.

Besides looking completely delicious, we love that this cozy side only requires five ingredients (not counting basics such as butter, olive oil, salt and pepper) and that Ina has had it in her recipe box for over two decades! This

Potato-Fennel Gratin recipe originally appeared in—and was updated from—1999's The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

To make it, in a skillet with a mix of olive oil and butter, sauté a sliced onion and 4 sliced bulbs of fennel. Once caramelized, remove from the heat and toss them into a large bowl along with thinly sliced potatoes, cream, Gruyère, salt and pepper. Pour this mixture into a large oven-safe baking dish. Then in a small bowl, mix together a couple of tablespoons of cream and a handful of Gruyère to sprinkle on top.

At this point, you can either pop the casserole into the refrigerator to chill for up to 24 hours or bake it immediately for about an hour or until bubbly and golden brown. This serves 10 as is, and we'd put money on the fact that leftovers would taste incredible with an egg and crumbled bacon on top for a Friday brunch, but you could likely cut this in half and follow the same instructions for a five-serving portion.