Hello there! If you’re signed up for Emily Weinstein’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter — which of course you are — you heard from me this morning when I shared five quick and easy pastas that would make really lovely Valentine’s Day dinner options.
But maybe you don’t want pasta. Or you’re not sure exactly what you’d like, but you want it to be fancy-ish but still simple enough to pull off at the end of a long week.
Sometimes all it takes for a dish to feel special is using an ingredient that feels a little precious, something that you don’t normally reach for on a weeknight. Just that extra bit of consideration turns a tried-and-true dish into a slightly glammed-up version of itself.
An excellent example of a recipe with this “easy but special” feeling is Yewande Komolafe’s honey-glazed chicken and shallots. Shallots are, of course, the fanciest onion that still lets you peel them (looking at you, pearl onions). Their pretty, soft purple color and soft allium flavor give this one-pan dinner a little glamour. I also love how they melt into soft little shells to hold the savory skillet sauce. I know I’ve used the word soft a lot here — it’s because this dish is a gentle sigh of a meal.
Valentine’s Day — or any special-occasion dinner, for that matter — is a great excuse to go to all in with your favorite protein. Julia Moskin’s cast-iron steak or Naz Deravian’s roasted dill salmon would be terrific centerpieces for a special meal. Sides can be simple but stunning. Hasselback potatoes and sheveed polo (dill rice) come to mind.
Many of our top-rated New York Times Cooking recipes offer different ingredient options — versatility is very attractive. Ian Fisher’s spaghetti carbonara can be made with bacon, pancetta or slab guanciale. Use store-bought marinara and lasagna noodles for Samin Nosrat’s big lasagna, or use homemade. Add bloomed saffron to Naz’s whole roasted chicken and rice, or don’t. Make these recipes as luxe as you like, knowing that your base template has five stars and tons of happy reviews.
I think any dessert, by virtue of simply existing, immediately feels special. But I’ll leave you with a couple of zhuzhed-up (but still easy) options. Melissa Clark’s lemon bars with olive oil and sea salt are a really beautiful treat for the sour tooth in your life; Eric Kim’s gochujang caramel cookies are practically blushing with sweet-spicy chile paste.
And if it’s not Valentine’s Day without something chocolate, may I introduce you to Yossy Arefi’s easy chocolate cake? Her take on the classic layer cake calls for sour cream in both the cake batter and the buttercream frosting to add plushness as well as a nice acidic tang to offset all the sweet. I know a layer cake feels a little extra for a Friday, and that’s exactly what we’re going for here.
