The Spicy Upgrade Ina Garten Uses For Her Pimento Spread

Pimento spread is a Southern staple, and once you've tried it, you'll know why. Rich and creamy and packed with cheesy goodness, it goes with just about everything from crudités to crispy chicken sandwiches. It takes simple ingredients like cheddar cheese, mayo, and pimento peppers and turns them into a culinary delight. But while everyone who grew up eating this comfort food has their own way of personalizing it, celebrity chef and author Ina Garten has a special trick to spice it up — and it comes with a real kick. 

Let's face it, Garten knows her cheese, which makes it far from surprising that she has taken this cheesy comfort classic and given it a flavor boost. The not-so-secret ingredient for a killer pimento spread, which she demonstrated in a viral Facebook reel, is none other than the iconic sriracha sauce, and it brings a complex depth to the flavor that makes this dish so much more than a simple spread. Other add-ins Garten favors include celery seed, garlic (grated, not crushed), fresh scallions, chopped red peppers, and softened cream cheese. She uses chopped pickled jalapeños for some extra spice and tang, but it's the hot sauce she adds at the last minute that really brings the heat. 

People are so obsessed with this flavorful hot sauce that sriracha has actually experienced nationwide shortages and bidding wars on eBay. Garten's decision to turn pimento cheese, a dish popular throughout the South, into one of her own unique creations was inspired by a version from Stinky Bklyn, a now-defunct Brooklyn cheese shop. In an interview on the female-focused food podcast Radio Cherry Bombe, Garten recalled her inspiration, telling host Kerry Diamond, "I thought, 'I'm just going to blend my ideas and their ideas,' and that's what it ended up being. It's an Atlanta and Brooklyn Pimento cheese spread." The result is a powerhouse creation, thanks to sriracha's versatile flavor profile — after all, the piquant condiment goes with just about anything, from noodle bowls to tacos and burritos to breakfast sandwiches and, yes, even cheese.

Sriracha gets its heat from red jalapeños and serrano peppers, which also provide its signature ruddy coloring. The sauce also includes generous amounts of garlic, vinegar, sugar, and salt. Combining sriracha's brilliant hue and intense flavor with the white cheddar, cream cheese, and mayonnaise that Garten uses gives her pimento cheese a lovely light orange tinge and tempered spiciness. The sweet and tangy spread, which is featured in her 2020 cookbook "Modern Comfort Food," is still recognizably a pimento cheese, yet so much more. Once you've aced The Barefoot Contessa's spicy spread, think outside the box by working it into the filling for deviled eggs or adding the creamy cheese to your BLT.