Plus, his go-to 15-minute dinner.
Key Points
- Stanley Tucci shares his favorite holiday meals, including goose, pie, and a variety of sides.
- Tucci’s go-to hosting gifts include wine, flowers, or a sweet treat to show appreciation.
- His quick dinner favorites are frittata or pasta pomodoro with fresh, simple ingredients.
There are plenty of questions we have to answer before the holidays roll around: what to cook, how to decorate and what gifts to give are just a few. To help us get through such a busy season, we all could use a little inspiration from time to time, and who better to turn to than Stanley Tucci?
The actor, travel show host and acclaimed cook and foodie is more than qualified to give us some insight. He sat down with EatingWell to dish on his favorite holiday recipes, go-to hosting gifts and his collaboration with S. Pellegrino—limited-edition bottles with prompts to keep the conversation going. Not to mention, he revealed his go-to 15-minute dinner recipe, dream dinner guest and more in this exclusive interview.
Do you have a favorite cocktail or mocktail that you like to make around the holidays?
I like a Scotch sour around the holidays, but also Scotch and soda or Scotch and Pellegrino, which is not so bad.
Aside from drinks and cocktails, what does your perfect holiday menu look like?
Thanksgiving is a turkey, slightly begrudgingly. Turkey’s not easy to cook. But then all the stuff that you put around the turkey is the stuff that I love: the stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, a blueberry pie or apple pie or something like that. I love all that stuff. And then Christmas Eve, varieties of fish. Christmas Day, goose. Something like that.
What is your favorite question that will be on one of these limited-edition bottles?
Well, it’s so funny because I have one right here, which is actually one of my favorites: “What memory makes you smile?” I love that. I love it because I always think about my kids. Being silly. When they’re little and say stuff that is— they just sort of come up with words for things that just aren’t words, or they use the wrong words, stuff like that.
Would you rather have the Thanksgiving spread or Sunday roast?
A Sunday roast can sort of bleed into a Thanksgiving spread. So maybe the Sunday roast.
Do you believe in host gifts, and if so, what is your go-to gift?
Oh yeah. Flowers, always wine. I never arrive at a house empty-handed if I can help it. Maybe sometimes a nice sort of sweet treat, but I’m not a sweet treat eater. That shouldn’t matter if you’re giving it to someone else.
So, Tucci in Great Britain is in the works. Can you give us any hints of what we can expect on your journey through your home country?
Imagine that I’m going to Italy, but it’s England, and there’s almost no pasta. So I’m going from really far north to really far south. I did 23 episodes of Italy—I’m not doing that many for England, butwe found places that we think are the best examples of what England and Great Britain has to offer.
What is one of your favorite British foods that you definitely want to highlight?
British roast potatoes and British beef and British seafood. And British lamb and British pork. I have to say there’s a lot of incredible stuff here.
It’s been a busy night. You have 15 minutes to make dinner. What is your go-to recipe?
Either a frittata or pasta pomodoro with fresh tomato.
What are you putting in your frittata?
Whatever you want. I like to put zucchini, mushrooms, if you have it. Really simple.
Who is your dream dinner guest?
My wife.