The Ina Garten Recipe That Is Taylor Swift's Go-To Dinner Party Dish

It's no secret that Ina Garten is a fan of Taylor Swift. In the past, Garten named Swift as one her dream dinner party guests and has, on numerous occasions, described her in glowing terms. (Garten even credits Swift with introducing her to beer pong.) Happily, the feeling is mutual. Swift has told multiple magazines how much she thinks of Garten. She's even said that Garten's work in the kitchen completely altered her own perspective on cooking. In addition to inviting Garten to party backstage after one of her shows, Swift, an avid home cook and baker, has shared that Garten's iconic Real Meatballs and Spaghetti is her default dish when it comes to hosting dinner parties.

Despite Frank Sinatra having a popular spaghetti and meatballs recipe, Swift's endorsement means Garten's recipe is one of the most highly touted spaghetti and meatball recipes around. Swift isn't the only fan of Garten's meatballs and spaghetti. Home cooks who've made the dish say it's a crowd pleaser. They also say that, despite being relatively quick and easy to make, the dish is packed with flavor. While the original recipe is exceptional, Swift is known to put her own spin on Garten's classic pasta dish.

Ina Garten's meatballs and spaghetti recipe sees meatballs being made with beef, pork, and veal. These are seasoned with nutmeg, salt, and pepper before being simmered in a red wine and tomato sauce. Like Garten's other recipes, this dish tastes much more complicated than it is, and the whole thing comes together in about two hours. However, Taylor Swift is an extremely busy woman and, as simple as Garten's recipe is, it should come as no surprise that she employs a few hacks to make this dish even easier to cook.

Garten's recipe calls for a combination of fresh breadcrumbs — made by slicing fresh white bread and pulverizing it in a food processor — and seasoned, dry breadcrumbs. Swift, on the other hand, substitutes the homemade breadcrumbs with premade ones, eliminating the need for a food processor. (Interestingly, neither Swift nor Garten soak the breadcrumbs before using them, a step that all but guarantees the cooked meatballs remain moist.) Swift also makes another ingredient swap, trading the recipe's combination of three meats for ground beef. She's not the only one. Several people who've made the recipe say they don't use veal. Instead, they only use beef, a mixture of beef and pork, or add chicken sausage in place of veal. 

These changes seem like a big detour from the original recipe, but Swift knows what she is doing. Rest assured that, if you go Swift's route and use 100% beef meatballs and store-bought breadcrumbs in order to save time, the finished dish will still be immensely flavorful.