On the newest episode of Jennifer Garner’s Pretend Cooking Show, the actress shares a meatball recipe inspired by Ina Garten
Ina Garten is the inspiration behind the latest installment of Jennifer Garner’s Pretend Cooking Show.
On Friday, the 13 Going on 30 star treated her Instagram followers to a new episode of her informal and beloved cooking series where she makes Garten’s “real meatballs.”
“I am going back to an old favorite,” The Adam Project actress says while holding up a copy of the 2002 Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook where the dish originated.
The mom of three explains that she adjusted Garten’s original recipe to fit her children’s picky palates many years ago. Some of her changes include grating the onion instead of chopping it, and using ground turkey instead of veal. (Get the full adapted recipe in the caption of her post here.)
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“While we patiently wait for @inagarten’s newest cookbook (out in October! Go-To Dinners!) I am revisiting old favorites,” Garner captioned the video. “This was super adapted for my picky little ones years ago— for the grown up, delicious, depth of flavor, actual recipe please see Barefoot Contessa: Family Style.”
In her usual Pretend Cooking Show style, the star cracks jokes and breaks out in dance moves throughout the video. Garner pokes fun at herself while rolling meatballs and gestures to the uneven balls: “If you’re looking for uniformity in your meatball size don’t come here.”
She a wore a striped t-shirt and white high-waisted jeans, for the occasion — a risky outfit choice, she points out. “Whenever you are making meatballs and tomato sauce, make sure to wear white pants,” she jokes.
The video takes a turn when Garner starts making the tomato sauce and sees a spider on her cabinet. She begins the hectic struggle of trying to take the spider out of the kitchen without hurting it. Finally, after several mishaps, she gets the spider outside and safely in the grass and returns to cooking.
This homemade meal even includes fresh pasta, though she doesn’t put the steps in the written recipe. Garner shows viewers how she makes her pasta dough, chills it for 30 minutes and then uses her KitchenAid mixer and pasta attachments to create the spaghetti.
Garner got the seal of approval from her cooking inspiration as the Barefoot Contessa star commented, “I love this so much!!!”
Last year, Garten admitted to having “almost lit the kitchen on fire” while making another one of Garten’s recipes: her beef bourguignon recipe. Fortunately, the meatball recipe went without a similar mishap. But even when Garner’s recipes don’t pan out perfectly, she maintains her positive attitude.
“Sometimes I really do think about 50 percent of what I make works out. It doesn’t deter me. Honestly, my kids are pretty patient with me,” she told PEOPLE in March. “To me, baking and cooking for your family is love. They know that I care and that I’m trying my scattered best. I wish I were a type A as some of my characters have been in the past, but that is not my skill set.”
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