Valentine's Day

A few essential recipes are all you need to skip the pricey restaurant.

When Laura Leavitt planned her wedding in 2015, she sent out a request with her RVSP cards: "The back of the card is blank for you to share a favorite family recipe with the soon-to-be newlyweds, if you like.” Here's what she learned in her first year of marriage.

This creamy risotto, spiked with salty Parmesan and topped with sweet, juicy roasted shrimp, has a lot going for it. There’s the slight edge of fancy, as risotto is something many of us eat at restaurants but not at home. And yet it’s so comforting — a simple homestyle dish, really. It’s also not difficult.

A few years ago I ordered a heart-shaped pizza from a big pizza chain, and boy was I disappointed; I paid something like $14 for a pizza that was barely big enough to feed me and my two preschoolers at the time and was more oblong than heart-shaped. I vowed to never order a holiday pizza again and set out to find the best method for making heart-shaped pizza at home.

A step-by-step guide to making the easiest and very best cacio e pepe pasta.

Duck breast with golden crisp skin and a deeply rich and rosy interior can be better than a steak. I often wonder we don’t cook more of it at home. I admit I often overlook this date-night alternative, but it truly has all the ease of chicken breast and decadence of steak. You won’t need more than a pan and a few simple prep tricks to make a gorgeous duck breast at home that rivals any restaurant prix-fixe entrée. Duck breast is one of my favorite dishes to order at restaurants.

A Valentine’s meal is not complete without a bit of chocolate. Here we end with chocolate in the form of a rich, fudgy brownie topped with a whipped peanut butter frosting and finished with flaked salt to tame the sweetness and round out all the flavors. By the time we get to these brownies, we usually skip the plates and just grab a couple forks. The best way to end a special meal.

Creamy, never-fail cheesecake that tastes incredible!

Last year I made an ardent case for panna cotta as the perfect dessert: it’s easy, quick, practically foolproof, and accommodating to many dietary adjustments, being naturally gluten-free and adaptable to dairy-free and vegan diets. Now that I’ve made my case for the merits of this lovely dessert, let’s move on and talk about how luscious it is, how perfectly creamy, in a way that belies its utter simplicity. And let me walk you through making panna cotta, step by step.

Are you cooking something sweet for Valentine’s Day? We asked our readers on Twitter and Facebook if there was anything they hoped to attempt for the first time this year, and crème brûlée came up. Crème brûlée is such an astonishingly easy treat, and I was happy for the excuse to revisit it.

This is the only way I'll cook steak from now on.

Complete with an herby garlic butter.

When you’re hankering for a classic steak and potatoes dinner, this one-skillet dish fits the bill perfectly. What makes it extra special is the garlicky lemon-parsley butter that’s basted over the steak as it’s seared. You end up with all the flavors of a steakhouse, except from the comfort of your own home. For this recipe you brown the potatoes, cook the steaks, and make the sauce, in the same skillet, leaving you with minimal cleanup.

Your perfectly cooked steak is waiting to be carved and you glance at the now-empty pan from cooking your steak. Luxe browned bits of steak drippings cling to the pan. Perhaps there’s a little bit of butter and some fragrant herbs left in the pan, too. It seems like a true tragedy to waste any of the wonderful mess. Fear not, because you can turn that pan of drippings into a tasty sauce for your steaks with a little broth or wine, a few aromatics, mustard, and a pat of cold butter.

Steak frites, the French version of meat and potatoes found often on the menu at brasseries throughout Europe, is traditionally a juicy, pan-seared steak with a butter sauce and deep-fried, skinny French fries. In this home-friendly rendition, we’re making steak frites in under 40 minutes, in one sheet pan, without the fuss and mess of deep-frying. With a few key tricks, you can successfully make this restaurant staple at home on a weeknight.

The lure of steak is simply irresistible. Add in beer-soaked mushrooms, caramelized onions, and some fingerling potatoes roasted with blue cheese, and you’ll have every neighbor within 300 feet of your front door standing in your kitchen. So lock ’em out, or welcome them in — either way, this 30-minute meal will knock the socks off your local steakhouse. I love to indulge in a great cut of meat and a few rich flavors to go with it.