Jenna Bush Hager Just Told Us Her Favorite Dessert, and It’s a Thanksgiving Classic

Thanksgiving is one of the most anticipated meals of the year. But what do you eat the night before? For Jenna Bush Hager, it’s pasta night with Rao’s jarred sauce for a quick, easy and delicious meal.

“I think women—and I’ll speak for myself—sometimes hold themselves to unusual standards when entertaining, especially around the holidays,” Bush Hager tells EatingWell in an exclusive interview. That’s why she’s partnering with her favorite sauce brand for their Ultimate Pasta Night sweepstakes, where winners can receive a round-trip flight of their choice alongside a Rao’s Homemade pasta kit for the “ultimate” pre-holiday experience.

“I think so many of us are consumed by the world, consumed by technology, and we're not sitting with each other and creating memories,” Bush Hager says. “So I love this idea of just using an amazing product that is delicious, saving women time and being with the people we love, creating real memories.”

In addition to learning more about her favorite pasta shapes and sauces, we chatted more with Bush Hager about her go-to pantry staples, her family’s favorite Thanksgiving dishes and her easy upgrade to elevate pumpkin pie. Learn more about the Today host’s traditions below.

With the holidays coming up, do you have a Thanksgiving dish that you most look forward to?

I mean, I’m a stuffing girl. My kids don’t really love it, which is insane, but I’m a stuffing girl, I love it. I like it sort of traditional—I mean, not from the box, but pretty close. My kids like my play on mashed potatoes, which I’ve always loved, and it’s to add a little truffle oil or truffle salt, and make them truffle mashed potatoes. I’m making the mashed potato recipe that was my grandma’s. It’s nothing really fancy, but then adding that just makes it slightly unexpected.

And then I’m always a pumpkin pie girl. Once I had a contest, and my sister had a friend from college from South Africa who came to our Thanksgiving. She made Martha Stewart’s homemade pumpkin pie, and I made the canned recipe, which is my go-to. We had a taste test, and I’ll just say it, I won.

So, is pumpkin pie your favorite dessert?

Yes, pumpkin pie with—and this is my specialty—I make cinnamon whipped cream, so I make homemade whipped cream and then I add cinnamon and sugar. That’s the way I elevated the canned pie recipe.

What Rao’s products do you always have on hand?

I’m so obsessed with Rao’s as a brand, but also with their sauces. I am not one that feels the necessity to make everything homemade, and frankly, Rao’s sauce is better than anything I could create, and it gives me time to hang with my kids or with my friends that are over. I use Rao’s Homemade Marinara all the time, but also their vodka sauce is incredible.

What’s your favorite pasta shape?

I have to say my kids’ favorite, which then becomes mine, is baked ziti. It feels a little more elevated—I mean, I don’t know, does it? But we went to Puglia this summer, and I fell in love with orecchiette, the tiny little circle-shaped pasta. We ate so much orecchiette, and now if I see it on a menu or if I go to the grocery store, we’re cooking some, which is great because it wasn’t something my kids were eating before.

Any other pantry staples that you keep on standby for quick and easy meals?

I love Italian food, especially since I’ve become a mother, because everybody will eat it and you don’t have to force them. But as a kid, growing up in Texas, Tex-Mex was my favorite and it still is. My kids don’t eat it as much, so it’s not quite as requested, but I’m obsessed with beans, I’m obsessed with rice. When we were young, we basically ate beans and rice twice a week, because my mom only cooked it. So beans are always in my pantry, which I’m sure my kids are like, “OK, I’m tired of those.”

Quinoa is in my pantry, we eat a lot of quinoa, which is kind of amazing that my kids will go for it, but I think if it’s cooked right, they’re into it. And snacks, but I’m not eating the snacks the kids are.

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What’s your favorite snack?

I love cheese. It doesn’t live in the pantry, but I’m a cheese-aholic, and actually I’ve created children that also love cheese, so I feel like I’ve done my part. I will ask my son, “What did you dream about?” and he’s like, “I dreamed that we went on a cheese vacation!” My goal is, when he’s old enough to travel somewhere far, to take him on a cheese vacation.

What does “eating well” mean to you?

Eating well means eating with people I love and eating things that I’ve never tried before. Our trips are about exploring new restaurants, exploring new cuisines and new dishes, but mainly it’s who I'm eating with that makes it a beautiful meal.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.