There’s no shortage of different methods of making mashed potatoes, one of the most popular being to add cream cheese. Celebrity chef Ina Garten doesn’t exactly reach for the cream cheese when making her mashed potatoes, but there is one type of cheese that she always loves to include for special guests.

The secret, flavor-packed ingredient that takes Garten's mashed potatoes to the next is goat cheese — specifically, Montrachet garlic and herb goat cheese softened to room temperature. Other ingredients in her mashed potatoes include Yukon golds, fresh garlic cloves, half a stick of butter, sour cream, and half and half.

To add goat cheese to your dish, says Garten, make your mashed potatoes as you normally would, then stir in the goat cheese while the potatoes are still hot and pass them through a food mill for extra fine grain. She suggests sprinkling pre-made, assembled mashed potatoes with grated Parmesan cheese and baking them in the oven.