Jennifer McLagan

Simple and made ahead, this granita has the requisite bright red color for a Valentine’s dessert. Its bittersweet taste is satisfying. This ice cleanses the palate and aids your digestion, leaving you ready for any post-prandial fun. Campari and orange juice is an excellent aperitif, and a good introduction to bitter. The same combination, though in different proportions to the cocktail, can be frozen into a granita.

Valentine’s Day provides you with an opportunity to cook a special meal for that important person in your life. However, too often suggested menus are full of heavy sauces, sugary red candies, and sweet chocolate and berries. Why such childlike tastes? This year, eschew those saccharine suggestions and be daring. Embrace bitterness, a flavor that combines danger and excitement. It’s the perfect way to spark romance.

Chocolate is an essential part of any Valentine’s meal, so why not surprise your dinner companion by using it in this savory dish? A roasted lamb rack is perfect for two, and the chocolate enriches the pan juices, making the perfect sauce to accompany it. This recipe shows how you can use chocolate to enrich a sauce. Cold butter is often whisked into pan juices to create a sauce, but here, the chocolate thickens and adds a touch of bitterness, as does the black pepper.

This simple and mildly bitter recipe is a great way to begin your Valentine’s meal. Look for the elegant, long Treviso radicchio; it is easier to grill and sexier to eat. For the cheese, I’d recommend a Brillat-Savarin, as its creaminess balances the radicchio’s natural bitterness. → Buy Jennifer’s Book! Bitter: A Taste of the World’s Most Dangerous Flavor, with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan → Read more of Jennifer’s writing on her blog.