It’s the third act. After an adorable meet-cute and some bumbling mishaps, our romantic leads — you and your valentine — have finally found each other. The lighting is warm, the wine is open and Aaron Neville’s “Crazy Love” is playing softly in the background. It’s time for dinner.
Valentine’s Day calls for rom-com cooking, and we have lots of recipes that feel positively cinematic, the sort of special-occasion dishes that encourage suspension of disbelief and let you gleefully ignore the fact that it’s the middle of the week and the laundry is still sitting in the dryer. First up: vanilla crème brûlée. You won’t need a kitchen blowtorch for this five-star Mark Bittman recipe; instead you’ll use your oven’s broiler to achieve that distinctive crackly sugar crust. (Though if you do use a small propane torch, please be sure to wink at your valentine when it ignites.)
Featured Recipe
Vanilla Crème Brûlée
If you’re aiming for a “Moonstruck” moment, here’s Ali Slagle’s recipe for rib-eye steak. Ali’s foolproof recipe has you flipping your steak often to ensure evenly cooked meat with an impressive browned crust. Shallots, thyme or rosemary infuse the pan sauce, though a good smear of garlic butter would also be welcome (on both the steak and the side of boiled spaghetti Loretta serves in the film).
A great risotto — like Martha Rose Shulman’s mushroom risotto with peas — requires a bit of babying to get it to that luscious, creamy consistency. Good thing, then, that there are two of you to take turns stirring this elegant vegetarian dish.
Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to splurge on those extra special proteins that look as incredible as they taste. This gorgeous rosemary rack of lamb with crushed potatoes from David Tanis — another five-star stunner — looks like the sort of dish that would anchor a dinner scene in a Nancy Meyers movie. (To make it for two, simply halve the recipe.)
You could also pull out all the stops for oh-là-là lobster thermidor. Generous pieces of lobster meat are tossed in a Cognac cream sauce, blanketed with Gruyère and then baked in the lobster shells. Know that our recipe editors, when they tasted this French classic from Lidey Heuck, lost their minds over how good it was.
Then again, you could make roast chicken. This lovely roast chicken is basic in the best way — just chicken, olive oil, salt and pepper — but it will definitely wow. (A choice reader comment: “After serving this to my husband he said, ‘I hope I die before you do.’”)
Lastly: lava cake. Yossy Arefi’s chocolate lava cake for two can be prepared a day in advance and then popped into the oven when you’re ready for dessert. You could bake this melty treat in two ramekins, but — in true rom-com fashion — we say go for the single baking dish. That way you can lean in close to share, urging your valentine to take the last bite before playfully swooping in to claim it for yourself. A sly smile, a giggle … and scene. MIA LEIMKUHLER
