Ina Garten's Luscious Mashed Potatoes Call For Just 4 Main Ingredients And 30 Minutes

Mashed potatoes are among all of the glorious foodstuffs that state pretty much exactly what they are right in the title. They're potatoes that have been mashed. But it only takes a few more ingredients to make each batch different than the last. Food Network fave and inveterate cookbook writer Ina Garten adds whole milk, unsalted butter, and sour cream to make spuds that will be worthy of any contessas who happen to be gathering around your table, barefoot or otherwise. 

Garten calls these her "classic mashed potatoes" in a "Barefoot Contessa" clip; a dish that's plenty enjoyable as is, but with oodles of room for enhancements. Provided that you're careful not to over-mix and make your mashed potatoes gluey, you can incorporate these same ingredients — plus salt and black pepper — time after time for an equally comforting finish in under half an hour once the veggies have been boiled and the dairy and seasonings have been combined. You can also tinker with an infinite array of extras to tailor the potatoes to your taste, not to mention whatever else is on the table, or even the time of year, in perpetuity. In the clip, Garten details white truffle butter, grated Parmesan, and garlic mashed potato varieties. Further adaptations also abound.

A lot of other mashed potato preparations also use milk, butter, and basic seasonings. So if Ina Garten's classic version has a zag, it's the slightly less common sour cream. And sour cream is followed by "and chives" so often that together they make a culinary power couple. A few tablespoons of chopped chives stirred in with the potatoes will bring a verdant, grassy freshness to the bowl with minimal additional effort.

A bit of horseradish will also give your mashed potatoes a nice kick. Since some prepared horseradish is already made with sour cream, you can even omit the separate portion, unless you want the double dose of tanginess. The subtle zing that sour cream can bring to mashed potatoes is way more assertive when you introduce some ranch seasoning, too. This pairing is also abundantly obvious once you remember that ranch dip has its own sour cream base. When the familiar seasoning meets mashed potatoes, real ranch lovers can even finally enjoy it by the forkful, rather than on some snackier chips. Add some pre-cooked, crumbled bacon as well, and your zhuzhed-up classic mashed potatoes will step out of the side shadows and approach the icon status that's more commonly granted to mains.