The Best Spinach Gratin Recipe Ever - Everyday Dishes (2024)

FAQs

Can you make Ina Garten's spinach gratin ahead of time? ›

This spinach gratin, from her fabulous 2001 “Barefoot Contessa Parties!” cookbook (Clarkson Potter), is perfect for the Thanksgiving table. Make it a day ahead, cover, refrigerate and bake while the turkey is resting. Garten told me she keeps Thanksgiving as traditional as possible.

Steps to Make It

Add the salt, pepper, dried thyme, and spinach to the pan and stir until the ingredients are combined. Cover the pan with a lid and turn the heat to low. Allow the spinach to wilt for 3 minutes. Stir the milk and heavy cream into the spinach mixture and turn it out into the buttered gratin dish.

I don't recommend soaking the potatoes in water ahead of time for our potatoes au gratin (as some recipes call for). Soaking them will cause them to lose some of their starch, which helps to keep this dish creamy.

High oven temperatures can make the milk's components break apart, again leaving the proteins free to clump together. To prevent curdling, cook your scalloped potatoes at a lower temperature and across a longer period of time.

Derived from the French verb gratiner — to broil — gratin is a process that involves topping a dish with either cheese or buttery breadcrumbs and baking or broiling until crispy.

If you stored the sliced potatoes in water to prevent discoloring, but didn't drain them well and pat them dry before adding them to the baking dish, you may have added extra water to the dish. You could have also used the wrong kind of potato, as some waxy potatoes can release more water than starchier potatoes.

Ina Garten Is Ditching Mashed Potatoes for This 5-Ingredient, Make-Ahead Thanksgiving Recipe. The best part (well, besides all the cheese)? You can prep it a day in advance.

Potato Gratin is one of the easiest potato sides to make ahead! Cook it as per the recipe, cover with baking paper (to stop the cheese sticking), followed by foil and refrigerate it for up to 48 hours. To reheat, keep it covered and heat it in a 200°C/400°F (180°C fan) oven for 45 minutes or until warmed through.

To make ahead and reheat: Assemble and bake it at 350°F, and then reheat it (350°F) covered loosely in foil to keep the crust from browning too much for 45 minutes, or until hot all the way through. Remove the foil for the last five or 10 minutes of baking so that the crust stays nice and crispy.

How do you keep spinach from getting soggy in the fridge? ›

Place the paper towel-wrapped spinach in a storage container or bag. Seal the container tightly. Store the spinach in the crisper drawer of your fridge for about 10 days. If your spinach isn't in an airtight container, make sure you don't store it next to ethylene-producing fruits (such as bananas and apples).