22 Valentine's Day Recipes

Hanky Panky Cocktail1/22

A classic hanky panky calls for gin, sweet vermouth, Fernet Branca, an orange twist, and, after the first sip, a ginormous grin. There's a reason it's a classic.

Two seared duck breasts, one sliced, the other whole on a wood cutting board

Seared Duck Breast2/22

An elegant and easy riff on steak au poivre that's made with duck breast rubbed with garlic and peppercorns and cooked to a magnificently rosy medium-rare.

A skillet filled with seared scallops cooked in butter

Seared Scallops3/22

Perhaps the easiest and most elegant dinner conceivable. Here's how to cook them to perfection.

A blood orange pound cake on a wire rack with glaze and sugar syrup, three slices cut

Blood Orange Pound Cake4/22

Buttery, rich cake is ribboned with a marmalade layer, steeped in a blood orange syrup, and topped with a light orange glaze. What more could you want?

Cutting board and knife with a salt and pepper rib eye steak

Salt and Pepper Rib Eye Steak5/22

Rib eye steak. Salt. Pepper. Flame. And this technique. That's all it takes to create one of the most superlative suppers known to man.

Two fillets of flounder in a lemon butter sauce in a skillet topped with chopped parsley

Flounder with Lemon Butter Sauce6/22

One of our most requested recipes. Easy, elegant, and pretty much foolproof. Sorta impressive for something that you toss together in less than 15 minutes, wouldn't you agree?

A bowl filled with baby greens on a white linen napkin. Part of a goat cheese crostini is on the edge of the bowl and the other part on the napkin

Warm Goat Cheese Salad7/22

Baguette slathered with goat cheese and baked to toasty perfection with a can't-mess-it-up vinaigrette and salad. Easy peasy.

A plate with a large piece of seared foie gras topped with watercress and apple puree on the side.

Pan-Seared Foie Gras8/22

This luxe little number with a pan sauce reduction of late-harvest Chardonnay is best reserved for when you truly, madly, deeply love your guests.

Herbed Compound Butter9/22

Nothing says "I love you" like sharing steak swimming in a puddle of melting herb butter. Consider it Cupid's little helper.

Four Cheese Macaroni and Cheese10/22

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful. Witness this macaroni and cheese with fontina, Gorgonzola, pecorino, and Parm.

A potato pancake, with cheese and bacon, with a slice missing, on crumpled parchment

Potato Cake with Cheese and Bacon11/22

Truffade is French for "potato pancake graced by bacon and laden with Cantal or Gruyere cheese." In other words, this.

A pot of velvet mashed potatoes--made with plenty of butter, cream--with a wooden spoon and pat of butter on top

Velvet Mashed Potatoes12/22

No mere mash, this creamy potato purée owes its uber velvetiness to truly indecent amounts of butter and cream. And we mean that in the best possible way.

A white plate of broccoli rabe with balsamic brown butter being poured on top

Broccoli Rabe with Balsamic Brown Butter13/22

Think you don't like broccoli rabe? Think again. We defy you to try this butter-blasted kin to broccoli and not be converted.

A serving platter piled with green beans and sprinkled with gremolata. A small dish of gremolata sits beside the serving plate.

Green Beans Gremolata14/22

An easy way to gussy up green beans and make them seem fancy without being fussy.

Six heart Linzer cookies being dusted with confectioners' sugar

Linzer Heart Cookies15/22

Baking a batch of these hazelnut-inflected, raspberry-jamwiched linzers is nothing if not a testament to your heart most definitely being in the right place.

A coupe class with three scoops of red mulled wine sorbet

Mulled Wine Sorbet16/22

Mulled wine turned into dessert. Second pours, er, helpings encouraged. Especially for moms. Zinfandel, Cabernet, Beaujolais, or Bordeaux, it matters not.

David Lebovitz’s Best Brownies17/22

"Best brownies" is a pretty bold assertion. Yet these chewy fudge brownies from David Lebovitz merit it.

Two ramekins filled with masala chai creme brûlée, one with it's top cracked open to reveal the creamy inside

Masala Chai Crème Brûlée18/22

Your favorite tea turned sideways, making it a creamy dessert with a crackling, shattering caramelized sugar topping.

Red Wine Poached Pears19/22

A stunning—and stunningly simple—dessert made from booze and fruit and sugar and not a lot else.

A 16-layer red-eye devil's food cake--alternating layer of chocolate cake and chocolate frosting

Red Eye Devil’s Food Cake20/22

This caffeinated incarnation of a classic chocolate cake comprises cocoa-y layers that take their jolt from a cup of joe and ample fudgy ganache that make everything, even chocolate cake, better.

Chocolate Pots de Crème21/22

A choose-your-own-ending recipe, with varying outcomes depending on whether you use bittersweet or semisweet chocolate. Suspenseful!