#Butternut and Pork Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

[askwhatsforlunch]

Butternut and Pork Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

These Butternut and Pork Stuffed Cabbage Leaves may take a while to prepare, but the effort will be rewarded with a deliciously fragrant filling wrapped in bright green leaves, an Autumnal lunch (or dinner) worthy of a day off! Happy Thursday!

Ingredients (serves 4):

1 cup brown rice

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1/4 large butternut squash (from the top half), rinsed

1/2 onion

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or sea salt flakes

12 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

4 beautiful, large outer leaves of a Savoy cabbage

1/4 Savoy cabbage

200 grams/7 ounces Toulouse Sausages (or other good quality pork sausages)

1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

1 large egg

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 200°C/395°F.

In a rice cooker or small pot, combine brown rice and coarse sea salt. Cover with a cup of water, and cook, until tender and fluffy, about 20 minutes.

Cut butternut into large chunks, and arrange onto a roasting tin. Cut onion into quarters and add to the tin as well. Sprinkle with rosemary, fleur de sel and black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil. Roast, at 200°C/395°F, for about 35 minutes.

Bring a large pot, filled to three-quarters with water, to the boil. Once boiling, stir in coarse sea salt until dissolved. Then, add bicarbonate of soda. Plunge in the large cabbage leaves and blanch, 2 minutes.

Then, cool them under cold water and drain thoroughly. Set aside.

Place Savoy cabbage quarter into the pot, cover with a lid, and cook, about 12 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the pot and drain thoroughly. Allow to cool a bit. Set aside.

Remove Toulouse sausage meat from their casings, and into a large bowl. Crumble with your fingers.

Roughly chop Savoy cabbage, and add to the bowl, along with cooked brown rice. Give a good stir, to mix.

Peel the skin off the roasted butternut, and chop roughly, along with the onion. Add to the bowl, and season with black pepper. Break the egg in the middle, and mix well with clean hands. Set aside.

Thoroughly pat Savoy Cabbage leaves dry with paper towels. Stuff each with a cup of the butternut and sausage mixture. Wrap well, tucking the filling in, and tie with kitchen twine.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Once the butter is just foaming, add stuffed cabbage leaves, turning them in to coat in butter. Cook, a couple of minutes, then pour in 1/2 cup of the cabbage water. Reduce heat to medium, cover with a lid, and cook 12 to 15 minutes, adding more of the cabbage water if necessary, as it will evaporate.

Remove stuffed cabbage leaves from the skillet and cut off the twine.

Serve Butternut and Pork Stuffed Cabbage Leaves hot, with a robust red wine, like a French Ventoux or an Australian Shiraz.

[wellnessroutines]

60+ Simple and Delicious Weight Watchers Crockpot Recipes

Nothing claims Fall like a crockpot slowly cooking your dish, simmering your meats, veggies and also natural herbs for an aroma that is equivalent components succulent and also hearty. As the temperature level outside decreases and the days obtain much shorter, most of us transform our focus to staying at residence, rather compared to hitting the health club. Include these Weight Watcher's crockpot dishes to the mix for the days when you understand you're not leaving your couch.

Fall and also Wintertime could come to be the periods of hibernation for some people, as well as vacation parties and cooking escalate the temptation to load ourselves with sugary foods as well as baked goods. It's fantastic to delight every now and then, however you cannot let your healthy consuming entirely fly out the window.

These Weight Viewer's crockpot recipes are healthy and also will certainly help you view your weight. They're loaded with nourishing, delightful components that will certainly make you crave them once more as well as again.

You can quite a lot slow-moving chef anything these days, from stew to chicken teriyaki, to shrimp as well as vegetable curry. There's something around slow-moving prepared dishes that make them incomparable. They exude with taste as well as are cooked to perfection.

Stepping right into your home after a lengthy day to the odor of a house prepared meal is absolutely nothing except elegant, and also these 60+ crockpot recipes will certainly maintain you satisfied all period long. Don't have a crockpot? TheBlack Decker Digital Slow Cooker comes extremely recommended.

And if you're just getting into crockpot food preparation, you could additionally take a look at this book: 100 Weight Viewer's Slow Cook Recipes. Delight in these crockpot dishes to keep you full as well as healthy and balanced throughout the season.

Soups and Appetizers

1. Slow Stove Spinach, Artichoke, as well as Kale Dip (Slender Kitchen area)

2. Slow Stove Blissful Butternut Squash Soup (Skinny Preference)

3. Slow Cooker Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (Things Recipes)

4. Slow Cooker Cranberry Meatballs (Basic Nourished Living)

5. Slow Cooker Chicken and also Mushroom Sauce (Skinny MS)

6. Skinny Slow Cooker Cheeseburger Soup (Passionate Dime Pincher)

7. Chunky Crockpot Tomato Soup (A Mommy's Take)

8. Slow Cooker Black Looked at Peas with Ham (Danica's Daily)

9. Buffalo Poultry as well as Quinoa Meatballs (Slender Kitchen)

10. Lentil Soup (Everyday Virtuoso)

11. Skinny Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup (Mommy Undertakings)

12. Crockpot Potato Soup (Secret Component)

13. Slow Cooker Moroccan, Chickpea and also Turkey Stew (Skinny Preference)

14. Slow Stove Savory Superfood Soup (Skinny MS)

15. Crockpot Poultry Noodle Soup (Laa Loosh)

16. Slow Cooker Stuffer Pepper Soup (8 Recipes)

17. Slow Cooker Minestrone (Skinny MS)

18. Tomato Spinach Soup (Weight Watchers Recipes)

19. Warm as well as Sour Soup (Weight Watchers Recipes)

20. Slow Stove Taco Soup (Recipe Diaries)

21. Slow Cooker Sausage Gnocchi Soup (Slender Cooking area)

22. Weight Watchers Friendly Tortellini Soup (The Mama Enjoys)

23. Slow Stove Hen Orzo Soup (Feeding the Flamingo)

Lunch

1. Slow Cooker Chicken Enchiladas (Skinny MS)

2. Slow Cooker Beef Wine red (KitchMe)

3. 3-Ingredient Slow Cooker Salsa Hen (Live Laugh Rowe)

4. Crockery Pot Santa Fe Hen (Skinny Preference)

5. Crockpot Sweet and Sour Hen (KitchMe)

6. Slow Cooker Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas (Laa Loosh)

7. Slow Cooker Sweet and also Tangy Poultry (Emily Bites)

8. Slow Cooker Manhattan Clam Chowder (Simple Nourished Living)

9. Slow Stove Pork Carnitas - Mexican Drew Pork (Slim Preference)

10. Green Turkey Chili Soup (Skinny MS)

11. Crockpot Salsa Hen (Dish Diaries)

12. Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches with Caramelized Onions (Skinny Preference)

13. Slow Stove Spicy BBQ Brisket (Danica's Daily)

14. Skinny Taco Chili (Skinny Kitchen)

15. Slow Stove Hawaiian Drew Pork (Dish Diaries)

16. Healthy and balanced Gumbo (Everything Began With Paint)

17. Slow Cooker Broccoli, Wild rice, and Cheddar Casserole (Skinny MS)

18. Slow Cooker Jalapeño Poultry Tacos with Creamy Cilantro Sauce (Slender Kitchen area)

19. Slow Cooker Beef Meatballs with Broccoli Rabe (Skinny MS)

20. Beef Tips in Mushroom Sauce Crockpot Recipe (Laa Loosh)

Dinner

1. Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki (KitchMe)

2. Olive Garden Slow Cooker Pasta Fagioli (Simple Nourished Living)

3. Slow Stove Mandarin Beef (Slim MS)

4. Slow Cooker Hen and Sauce (Weight Viewer Mommy)

5. Crockpot Hen and Dumplings (Imitation deliberately)

6. Skinny, Crockpot Balsamic Pork Tenderloin (Skinny Kitchen area)

7. Crockpot Lasagna (Food)

8. Delicious Slow Cooker Beef Stew (Details Recipes)

9. Easy Slow Stove Shrimp Curry (Simple Nourished Life)

10. Slow Stove Spicy Braised Beef (Slender Kitchen)

11. Chicken as well as Stuffing Crockpot Recipe (Fab Enjoyable Siblings)

12. Slow Stove Skinny Poultry Enchiladas (Tone as well as Tighten)

13. Slow Stove Kickin' Chicken Pasta (Emily Bites)

14. Slow Cooker Sesame Ginger Hen (Slender Kitchen area)

15. Crockery Pot Salmon Fillets as well as Asian Style Veggies (Basic Nourished Kitchen area)

16. Slow Stove Cheesy Spinach Pasta (Skinny MS)

17. Slow Stove Hoisin Hen Dish (Cookin Canuck)

18. Honey Balsamic Pork (If You Have an Egg)

19. Slow Cooker Cheesy Hen and also Potatoes (Information Recipes)

20. Luscious Crockpot Chicken Stew (The Cozy Chef)

21. Slow Stove Hen Pot Roast (Skinny MS)

Are you starving? I sure am. This list of Weight Spectator's crockpot dishes will certainly keep you full and also healthy and balanced this season, while maintaining your weight in check. Get cookin'!

[culinaryinquisitor-blog]

It Takes Two: Cooking Projects for You and Your Va...

New Post has been published on https://culinaryinquisitor.com/it-takes-two-cooking-projects-for-you-and-your-va/

It Takes Two: Cooking Projects for You and Your Va...

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[Photograph: Vicky Wasik, Shao Z.]

Let’s make one thing clear right out of the gate: Cooking as a couple isn’t for everyone. (Two years ago, we published a whole essay about this, albeit with a happy ending.) Maybe neither of you has Daniel’s sky-high standards in the kitchen, but successfully assembling a dinner together is one of those projects that tend to pull the veil off a relationship, exposing the tender spots of tension therein: needs for control or approval, tiny currents of judginess or thin competitive streaks. Even absent the complexity introduced by romance, deeply intertwined lives, and intimate knowledge of each other’s foibles, suddenly teaming up on a task that you’re used to doing alone can be a tough row to hoe—think of workplace collaboration, or The Amazing Race. You’ve been warned, is what we’re saying.

But! You’ve clicked on this article, you’ve read this far, and you’re a grown-up (we hope) who (we’ll assume) can point to the strength of your relationship and/or past triumphant team-cooking experiences as ample counterevidence. You already know that making a meal together can be a lovely expression of love, a way to create Valentine’s in your and your partner’s own image, on your own schedule, and avoid the headaches of dining out on that particular day. You’re here for recipes, not marriage advice, for chrissake! Well, fine.

While you can split up the duties required of almost any dish, some projects make more sense for this purpose than others. At the top of the list are any recipes that involve a lot of painstaking assembly, including items made in bulk to be frozen (dumplings and ravioli!) or stored in the pantry (DIY Milk Duds!) for later. Some of these recipes won’t make entrées, much less full meals, but we’ve included them because they provide good opportunities for collaboration, and because cooking projects can be enjoyable and worthwhile even if they don’t directly result in dinner. Pour a couple of glasses of wine and peruse this list together now, then stock up on everything you need well in advance, so you can be as relaxed as possible on the day of.

Homemade Mozzarella

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

High-quality fresh mozzarella—those delicate, moist orbs with a mild flavor of little more than good milk—can be hard to come by if you don’t live in Italy, or, at least, within close range of a well-supplied Italian grocery. Are you and your innamorato destined to go without? Not if we have anything to say about it. Armed with nonhomogenized, low-temperature-pasteurized milk (best obtained from a local farmers market), a couple of specialty ingredients you can order online, and a thorough reading of our explanation, you can take matters into your own hands, kind of literally. The teaming-up part comes when it’s time to stretch and shape the curd: After it’s been divided, both of you can stretch and lovingly shape your own balls of mozz before lowering them into whey to rest. For maximum collaboration, shape the cheese into tiny bocconcini instead of full-size balls, the better to pop into each other’s mouths right after they’re made. No, really: Eat these immediately, totally naked (the cheese, we mean, but y’all do y’all!), or with just a sprinkling of sea salt. Don’t even think about putting them in the fridge for later—true love might wait, but fresh mozzarella does not.

Get the recipe for Fresh Mozzarella From Scratch »

Pasta, All Ways

The Best Fresh Pasta Sheets

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Like making your own mozzarella, rolling and cutting your own fresh pasta dough will give you more than a terrific feeling of personal accomplishment; it’ll also result in a far tastier product than you’ll be able to buy at the vast majority of stores. One person can handle making the dough, sure, but kneading it is time-consuming, so it’s a good candidate for dividing between partners. If you’re using a manual pasta roller, it also helps to have one person feeding the dough in while the other turns the crank. If you’re lucky enough to have a stand mixer attachment for making pasta, well, take turns standing there and looking pretty. (Speaking of looking pretty: Incorporating beet purée is an easy way to turn your pasta a vibrant shade of pink that’s made for Valentine’s Day, without imparting any noticeable beet flavor.)

Get the recipe for Classic Fresh Egg Pasta »

This recipe makes pasta sheets that are ideal for slicing into linguine or fettuccine. Looking for something more involved? May we suggest…

Ravioli and Tortellini

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

If you and your valentine still have energy to burn after rolling out that homemade pasta dough, there’s nothing stopping you from turning it into an impressive spread of mushroom tortellini, ravioli filled with ricotta or butternut squash and blue cheese, or—for the high achievers among you, the couples who go running together in matching compression tights, you know who you are—an eye-popping dish of uovo in raviolo, extra-large ravioli filled with creamy ricotta and a soft-yolked egg. You will probably need a ravioli mold, or at least a fluted pastry wheel, when it’s time to cut the dough shapes, and you’ll definitely want both sets of hands available for portioning out the filling. If you’re making standard ravioli or tortellini, by all means enjoy your work for dinner in the evening, but make enough to freeze and eat later, too.

Stuffed Shells

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Want something a little softer and easier? A filled pasta that’s not quite as handcrafted, but still delicious, one that’ll leave you plenty of time for drinking wine and playing video games? Try our classic ricotta- and spinach-stuffed shells, or this incredible version with shells filled with crab, shrimp, and scallops, a bit like the love child of crab cakes and pasta Alfredo. Both of them start with store-bought dried pasta, but will still go a lot faster when you’ve got two people to do the stuffing.

Ricotta Gnudi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Gnudi comes from the old Tuscan-language equivalent of the word for “naked” in Italian, a name that’s both thematically appropriate for Valentine’s and practically descriptive of the dish: dumpling-like spheres of soft and creamy ricotta that lack a true pasta shell. Instead, they’re individually coated in a layer of semolina flour—a step that’s made quicker and easier with a partner—then allowed to sit until the thinnest of skins form on their exteriors. You’ll need to plan ahead for that step, as it can take a few days, and, above all, don’t skimp on the quality of the ricotta! With barely a fig leaf of pasta to cover it, so to speak, the cheese is highly exposed, which means it needs to be in top form. If excellent ricotta, containing no gums or stabilizers, isn’t available commercially where you live, tack on a bonus cooking project by making your own���it’s much easier than you think.

Get the recipe for Ricotta and Black Pepper Gnudi With Sage and Brown Butter »

A Dumpling Feast

[Photograph: Shao Z.]

With the help of store-bought wonton wrappers, making your own dumpling feast becomes as simple as whipping up the filling and starting up a two-person assembly line: one person to drop filling by the spoonful into each dumpling skin, the other to wet the edges, press, and seal. (For the sake of conjugal harmony, be sure to switch roles now and then, since partner #2 does the lion’s share of the work here.) We’ve got a number of recipes that start with store-bought wrappers, for dumplings as invitingly easy as they are tasty: pan-fried vegetable dumplings stuffed with wood ear mushrooms, five-spice tofu, and seitan; cute little shrimp and pork siu mai, made extra rich with pork fat mixed into the filling; Japanese pork and cabbage gyoza; and Sichuan-style wontons that pack a punch with hot, sour, sweet, and savory flavors. (Don’t forget the dipping sauces, too!)

Not enough of a challenge for you, unstoppable power couple that you are? Try your hands at dumplings that are homemade from start to finish, including the wrappers—like diaphanous har gow crammed with plump shrimp, or hearty Taiwanese pan-fried leek buns (shui jian bao). Perhaps the crowning achievement in a homemade-dumpling résumé, if there is such a thing, is xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, twist-topped bundles of dough hiding a liquid center of broth that gushes when you bite into it. Though they’re not all that difficult to make, they do rely on the gelatin content of homemade broth, so get ready for some extra canoodling over a mound of chicken backs.

You can find even more homemade-dumpling recipes to try out, either solo or together, here.

Tamales

[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

Yes, tamales have a reputation, and a pretty well-deserved one at that, for being terribly labor-intensive. But dammit, is it ever hard to come by a truly good tamale—light, flavorful masa dough wrapped around a savory core of fillings—in the US, unless you live in one of a very few places with strong Mexican-American influences…or unless you have a special someone to help you make them at home. Our guide smooths the way for you by describing the testing process in detail and including photographs of each step in the assembly process. With help from his wife, Josh was able to put together 60 tamales in under half an hour—not a bad turnaround time—before steaming them or freezing for later. Choose a filling of red chili with chicken, roasted peppers and Oaxaca cheese, or green chili with pork.

Sushi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Making makizushi (sushi rolls) is one of the most enjoyable yet approachable hands-on cooking projects you can dream up. It’s less humdrum than filling dumplings or assembling tamales, and, while it does take a bit of practice and maybe just a smidge of artistry, don’t be intimidated! Equipped with a couple of bamboo rolling mats for turning out tight, even rolls—and as long as you remember to keep your hands moistened and avoid laying the rice and fillings on too thick—you’ll be proudly snapping selfies with your very own maki rolls in short order. Look for fresh, soft, deep-green nori sheets, and, of course, use only the freshest raw fish you can find.

Get the recipe for Makizushi (Sushi Rolls) »

See all of our Sushi Week posts »

Spring Rolls

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Though many American eaters associate the name with the crispy, golden-fried sticks from Thai takeout menus, “spring rolls” is a catchall term that encompasses a wide range of filled-and-rolled appetizers, including the lighter, greener version pictured above. At any other time of year, they’re great for entertaining: Set out a platter of filling options—this recipe calls for fried tofu matchsticks, pea shoots, julienned carrots, and piles of fresh herbs—and a stack of flexible rice paper wrappers, and let everyone make their own. For Valentine’s, limit the guest list to just the two of you, stuff yourselves silly, and don’t skimp on the sweet/salty/spicy peanut-tamarind dipping sauce.

Get the recipe for Easy Vegan Crispy Tofu Spring Rolls »

Desserts

Sandwich Cookies

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Any homemade cookie from one of Stella’s recipes should be enough to get you in the mood (or maybe that’s just me I’m thinking of), but sandwich-style cookies will give you an extra chance to lightly touch elbows as you apply dollops of creme and carefully center those top wafers. Choose from BraveTart’s incredible “fauxreos”, bright and crunchy ginger-lemon cookies, E.L. Fudge–style chocolate-filled vanilla cookies, peanut butter and jelly cookies for the kid in you, and soft and tender alfajores con cajeta, to name a few. Springing for a heart-shaped cutter will of course automatically increase your cuteness quotient by 10%.

Milk Duds

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

There’s something about a slightly messy DIY project, especially if the mess it produces is edible, that can’t help but feel a little sensual. You’ve got to check your inhibitions at the door if you want to plunge your hands into a vat of melted chocolate, and that’s exactly how you’ll be coating these chewy caramels—which happily introduces the possibility of secretly touching fingers inside the pot and devising clever methods of getting all that chocolate off of each other. You don’t need us for that, but you will want to closely follow Stella’s instructions for making the caramel, and read up on Kenji’s guide to tempering chocolate.

Get the recipe for Homemade Milk Duds »

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[tebbyclinic11]

It Takes Two: Cooking Projects for You and Your Va...

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It Takes Two: Cooking Projects for You and Your Va...

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[Photograph: Vicky Wasik, Shao Z.]

Let’s make one thing clear right out of the gate: Cooking as a couple isn’t for everyone. (Two years ago, we published a whole essay about this, albeit with a happy ending.) Maybe neither of you has Daniel’s sky-high standards in the kitchen, but successfully assembling a dinner together is one of those projects that tend to pull the veil off a relationship, exposing the tender spots of tension therein: needs for control or approval, tiny currents of judginess or thin competitive streaks. Even absent the complexity introduced by romance, deeply intertwined lives, and intimate knowledge of each other’s foibles, suddenly teaming up on a task that you’re used to doing alone can be a tough row to hoe—think of workplace collaboration, or The Amazing Race. You’ve been warned, is what we’re saying.

But! You’ve clicked on this article, you’ve read this far, and you’re a grown-up (we hope) who (we’ll assume) can point to the strength of your relationship and/or past triumphant team-cooking experiences as ample counterevidence. You already know that making a meal together can be a lovely expression of love, a way to create Valentine’s in your and your partner’s own image, on your own schedule, and avoid the headaches of dining out on that particular day. You’re here for recipes, not marriage advice, for chrissake! Well, fine.

While you can split up the duties required of almost any dish, some projects make more sense for this purpose than others. At the top of the list are any recipes that involve a lot of painstaking assembly, including items made in bulk to be frozen (dumplings and ravioli!) or stored in the pantry (DIY Milk Duds!) for later. Some of these recipes won’t make entrées, much less full meals, but we’ve included them because they provide good opportunities for collaboration, and because cooking projects can be enjoyable and worthwhile even if they don’t directly result in dinner. Pour a couple of glasses of wine and peruse this list together now, then stock up on everything you need well in advance, so you can be as relaxed as possible on the day of.

Homemade Mozzarella

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

High-quality fresh mozzarella—those delicate, moist orbs with a mild flavor of little more than good milk—can be hard to come by if you don’t live in Italy, or, at least, within close range of a well-supplied Italian grocery. Are you and your innamorato destined to go without? Not if we have anything to say about it. Armed with nonhomogenized, low-temperature-pasteurized milk (best obtained from a local farmers market), a couple of specialty ingredients you can order online, and a thorough reading of our explanation, you can take matters into your own hands, kind of literally. The teaming-up part comes when it’s time to stretch and shape the curd: After it’s been divided, both of you can stretch and lovingly shape your own balls of mozz before lowering them into whey to rest. For maximum collaboration, shape the cheese into tiny bocconcini instead of full-size balls, the better to pop into each other’s mouths right after they’re made. No, really: Eat these immediately, totally naked (the cheese, we mean, but y’all do y’all!), or with just a sprinkling of sea salt. Don’t even think about putting them in the fridge for later—true love might wait, but fresh mozzarella does not.

Get the recipe for Fresh Mozzarella From Scratch »

Pasta, All Ways

The Best Fresh Pasta Sheets

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Like making your own mozzarella, rolling and cutting your own fresh pasta dough will give you more than a terrific feeling of personal accomplishment; it’ll also result in a far tastier product than you’ll be able to buy at the vast majority of stores. One person can handle making the dough, sure, but kneading it is time-consuming, so it’s a good candidate for dividing between partners. If you’re using a manual pasta roller, it also helps to have one person feeding the dough in while the other turns the crank. If you’re lucky enough to have a stand mixer attachment for making pasta, well, take turns standing there and looking pretty. (Speaking of looking pretty: Incorporating beet purée is an easy way to turn your pasta a vibrant shade of pink that’s made for Valentine’s Day, without imparting any noticeable beet flavor.)

Get the recipe for Classic Fresh Egg Pasta »

This recipe makes pasta sheets that are ideal for slicing into linguine or fettuccine. Looking for something more involved? May we suggest…

Ravioli and Tortellini

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

If you and your valentine still have energy to burn after rolling out that homemade pasta dough, there’s nothing stopping you from turning it into an impressive spread of mushroom tortellini, ravioli filled with ricotta or butternut squash and blue cheese, or—for the high achievers among you, the couples who go running together in matching compression tights, you know who you are—an eye-popping dish of uovo in raviolo, extra-large ravioli filled with creamy ricotta and a soft-yolked egg. You will probably need a ravioli mold, or at least a fluted pastry wheel, when it’s time to cut the dough shapes, and you’ll definitely want both sets of hands available for portioning out the filling. If you’re making standard ravioli or tortellini, by all means enjoy your work for dinner in the evening, but make enough to freeze and eat later, too.

Stuffed Shells

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Want something a little softer and easier? A filled pasta that’s not quite as handcrafted, but still delicious, one that’ll leave you plenty of time for drinking wine and playing video games? Try our classic ricotta- and spinach-stuffed shells, or this incredible version with shells filled with crab, shrimp, and scallops, a bit like the love child of crab cakes and pasta Alfredo. Both of them start with store-bought dried pasta, but will still go a lot faster when you’ve got two people to do the stuffing.

Ricotta Gnudi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Gnudi comes from the old Tuscan-language equivalent of the word for “naked” in Italian, a name that’s both thematically appropriate for Valentine’s and practically descriptive of the dish: dumpling-like spheres of soft and creamy ricotta that lack a true pasta shell. Instead, they’re individually coated in a layer of semolina flour—a step that’s made quicker and easier with a partner—then allowed to sit until the thinnest of skins form on their exteriors. You’ll need to plan ahead for that step, as it can take a few days, and, above all, don’t skimp on the quality of the ricotta! With barely a fig leaf of pasta to cover it, so to speak, the cheese is highly exposed, which means it needs to be in top form. If excellent ricotta, containing no gums or stabilizers, isn’t available commercially where you live, tack on a bonus cooking project by making your own—it’s much easier than you think.

Get the recipe for Ricotta and Black Pepper Gnudi With Sage and Brown Butter »

A Dumpling Feast

[Photograph: Shao Z.]

With the help of store-bought wonton wrappers, making your own dumpling feast becomes as simple as whipping up the filling and starting up a two-person assembly line: one person to drop filling by the spoonful into each dumpling skin, the other to wet the edges, press, and seal. (For the sake of conjugal harmony, be sure to switch roles now and then, since partner #2 does the lion’s share of the work here.) We’ve got a number of recipes that start with store-bought wrappers, for dumplings as invitingly easy as they are tasty: pan-fried vegetable dumplings stuffed with wood ear mushrooms, five-spice tofu, and seitan; cute little shrimp and pork siu mai, made extra rich with pork fat mixed into the filling; Japanese pork and cabbage gyoza; and Sichuan-style wontons that pack a punch with hot, sour, sweet, and savory flavors. (Don’t forget the dipping sauces, too!)

Not enough of a challenge for you, unstoppable power couple that you are? Try your hands at dumplings that are homemade from start to finish, including the wrappers—like diaphanous har gow crammed with plump shrimp, or hearty Taiwanese pan-fried leek buns (shui jian bao). Perhaps the crowning achievement in a homemade-dumpling résumé, if there is such a thing, is xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, twist-topped bundles of dough hiding a liquid center of broth that gushes when you bite into it. Though they’re not all that difficult to make, they do rely on the gelatin content of homemade broth, so get ready for some extra canoodling over a mound of chicken backs.

You can find even more homemade-dumpling recipes to try out, either solo or together, here.

Tamales

[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

Yes, tamales have a reputation, and a pretty well-deserved one at that, for being terribly labor-intensive. But dammit, is it ever hard to come by a truly good tamale—light, flavorful masa dough wrapped around a savory core of fillings—in the US, unless you live in one of a very few places with strong Mexican-American influences…or unless you have a special someone to help you make them at home. Our guide smooths the way for you by describing the testing process in detail and including photographs of each step in the assembly process. With help from his wife, Josh was able to put together 60 tamales in under half an hour—not a bad turnaround time—before steaming them or freezing for later. Choose a filling of red chili with chicken, roasted peppers and Oaxaca cheese, or green chili with pork.

Sushi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Making makizushi (sushi rolls) is one of the most enjoyable yet approachable hands-on cooking projects you can dream up. It’s less humdrum than filling dumplings or assembling tamales, and, while it does take a bit of practice and maybe just a smidge of artistry, don’t be intimidated! Equipped with a couple of bamboo rolling mats for turning out tight, even rolls—and as long as you remember to keep your hands moistened and avoid laying the rice and fillings on too thick—you’ll be proudly snapping selfies with your very own maki rolls in short order. Look for fresh, soft, deep-green nori sheets, and, of course, use only the freshest raw fish you can find.

Get the recipe for Makizushi (Sushi Rolls) »

See all of our Sushi Week posts »

Spring Rolls

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Though many American eaters associate the name with the crispy, golden-fried sticks from Thai takeout menus, “spring rolls” is a catchall term that encompasses a wide range of filled-and-rolled appetizers, including the lighter, greener version pictured above. At any other time of year, they’re great for entertaining: Set out a platter of filling options—this recipe calls for fried tofu matchsticks, pea shoots, julienned carrots, and piles of fresh herbs—and a stack of flexible rice paper wrappers, and let everyone make their own. For Valentine’s, limit the guest list to just the two of you, stuff yourselves silly, and don’t skimp on the sweet/salty/spicy peanut-tamarind dipping sauce.

Get the recipe for Easy Vegan Crispy Tofu Spring Rolls »

Desserts

Sandwich Cookies

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Any homemade cookie from one of Stella’s recipes should be enough to get you in the mood (or maybe that’s just me I’m thinking of), but sandwich-style cookies will give you an extra chance to lightly touch elbows as you apply dollops of creme and carefully center those top wafers. Choose from BraveTart’s incredible “fauxreos”, bright and crunchy ginger-lemon cookies, E.L. Fudge–style chocolate-filled vanilla cookies, peanut butter and jelly cookies for the kid in you, and soft and tender alfajores con cajeta, to name a few. Springing for a heart-shaped cutter will of course automatically increase your cuteness quotient by 10%.

Milk Duds

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

There’s something about a slightly messy DIY project, especially if the mess it produces is edible, that can’t help but feel a little sensual. You’ve got to check your inhibitions at the door if you want to plunge your hands into a vat of melted chocolate, and that’s exactly how you’ll be coating these chewy caramels—which happily introduces the possibility of secretly touching fingers inside the pot and devising clever methods of getting all that chocolate off of each other. You don’t need us for that, but you will want to closely follow Stella’s instructions for making the caramel, and read up on Kenji’s guide to tempering chocolate.

Get the recipe for Homemade Milk Duds »

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It Takes Two: Cooking Projects for You and Your Va...

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[Photograph: Vicky Wasik, Shao Z.]

Let’s make one thing clear right out of the gate: Cooking as a couple isn’t for everyone. (Two years ago, we published a whole essay about this, albeit with a happy ending.) Maybe neither of you has Daniel’s sky-high standards in the kitchen, but successfully assembling a dinner together is one of those projects that tend to pull the veil off a relationship, exposing the tender spots of tension therein: needs for control or approval, tiny currents of judginess or thin competitive streaks. Even absent the complexity introduced by romance, deeply intertwined lives, and intimate knowledge of each other’s foibles, suddenly teaming up on a task that you’re used to doing alone can be a tough row to hoe—think of workplace collaboration, or The Amazing Race. You’ve been warned, is what we’re saying.

But! You’ve clicked on this article, you’ve read this far, and you’re a grown-up (we hope) who (we’ll assume) can point to the strength of your relationship and/or past triumphant team-cooking experiences as ample counterevidence. You already know that making a meal together can be a lovely expression of love, a way to create Valentine’s in your and your partner’s own image, on your own schedule, and avoid the headaches of dining out on that particular day. You’re here for recipes, not marriage advice, for chrissake! Well, fine.

While you can split up the duties required of almost any dish, some projects make more sense for this purpose than others. At the top of the list are any recipes that involve a lot of painstaking assembly, including items made in bulk to be frozen (dumplings and ravioli!) or stored in the pantry (DIY Milk Duds!) for later. Some of these recipes won’t make entrées, much less full meals, but we’ve included them because they provide good opportunities for collaboration, and because cooking projects can be enjoyable and worthwhile even if they don’t directly result in dinner. Pour a couple of glasses of wine and peruse this list together now, then stock up on everything you need well in advance, so you can be as relaxed as possible on the day of.

Homemade Mozzarella

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

High-quality fresh mozzarella—those delicate, moist orbs with a mild flavor of little more than good milk—can be hard to come by if you don’t live in Italy, or, at least, within close range of a well-supplied Italian grocery. Are you and your innamorato destined to go without? Not if we have anything to say about it. Armed with nonhomogenized, low-temperature-pasteurized milk (best obtained from a local farmers market), a couple of specialty ingredients you can order online, and a thorough reading of our explanation, you can take matters into your own hands, kind of literally. The teaming-up part comes when it’s time to stretch and shape the curd: After it’s been divided, both of you can stretch and lovingly shape your own balls of mozz before lowering them into whey to rest. For maximum collaboration, shape the cheese into tiny bocconcini instead of full-size balls, the better to pop into each other’s mouths right after they’re made. No, really: Eat these immediately, totally naked (the cheese, we mean, but y’all do y’all!), or with just a sprinkling of sea salt. Don’t even think about putting them in the fridge for later—true love might wait, but fresh mozzarella does not.

Get the recipe for Fresh Mozzarella From Scratch »

Pasta, All Ways

The Best Fresh Pasta Sheets

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Like making your own mozzarella, rolling and cutting your own fresh pasta dough will give you more than a terrific feeling of personal accomplishment; it’ll also result in a far tastier product than you’ll be able to buy at the vast majority of stores. One person can handle making the dough, sure, but kneading it is time-consuming, so it’s a good candidate for dividing between partners. If you’re using a manual pasta roller, it also helps to have one person feeding the dough in while the other turns the crank. If you’re lucky enough to have a stand mixer attachment for making pasta, well, take turns standing there and looking pretty. (Speaking of looking pretty: Incorporating beet purée is an easy way to turn your pasta a vibrant shade of pink that’s made for Valentine’s Day, without imparting any noticeable beet flavor.)

Get the recipe for Classic Fresh Egg Pasta »

This recipe makes pasta sheets that are ideal for slicing into linguine or fettuccine. Looking for something more involved? May we suggest…

Ravioli and Tortellini

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

If you and your valentine still have energy to burn after rolling out that homemade pasta dough, there’s nothing stopping you from turning it into an impressive spread of mushroom tortellini, ravioli filled with ricotta or butternut squash and blue cheese, or—for the high achievers among you, the couples who go running together in matching compression tights, you know who you are—an eye-popping dish of uovo in raviolo, extra-large ravioli filled with creamy ricotta and a soft-yolked egg. You will probably need a ravioli mold, or at least a fluted pastry wheel, when it’s time to cut the dough shapes, and you’ll definitely want both sets of hands available for portioning out the filling. If you’re making standard ravioli or tortellini, by all means enjoy your work for dinner in the evening, but make enough to freeze and eat later, too.

Stuffed Shells

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Want something a little softer and easier? A filled pasta that’s not quite as handcrafted, but still delicious, one that’ll leave you plenty of time for drinking wine and playing video games? Try our classic ricotta- and spinach-stuffed shells, or this incredible version with shells filled with crab, shrimp, and scallops, a bit like the love child of crab cakes and pasta Alfredo. Both of them start with store-bought dried pasta, but will still go a lot faster when you’ve got two people to do the stuffing.

Ricotta Gnudi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Gnudi comes from the old Tuscan-language equivalent of the word for “naked” in Italian, a name that’s both thematically appropriate for Valentine’s and practically descriptive of the dish: dumpling-like spheres of soft and creamy ricotta that lack a true pasta shell. Instead, they’re individually coated in a layer of semolina flour—a step that’s made quicker and easier with a partner—then allowed to sit until the thinnest of skins form on their exteriors. You’ll need to plan ahead for that step, as it can take a few days, and, above all, don’t skimp on the quality of the ricotta! With barely a fig leaf of pasta to cover it, so to speak, the cheese is highly exposed, which means it needs to be in top form. If excellent ricotta, containing no gums or stabilizers, isn’t available commercially where you live, tack on a bonus cooking project by making your own—it’s much easier than you think.

Get the recipe for Ricotta and Black Pepper Gnudi With Sage and Brown Butter »

A Dumpling Feast

[Photograph: Shao Z.]

With the help of store-bought wonton wrappers, making your own dumpling feast becomes as simple as whipping up the filling and starting up a two-person assembly line: one person to drop filling by the spoonful into each dumpling skin, the other to wet the edges, press, and seal. (For the sake of conjugal harmony, be sure to switch roles now and then, since partner #2 does the lion’s share of the work here.) We’ve got a number of recipes that start with store-bought wrappers, for dumplings as invitingly easy as they are tasty: pan-fried vegetable dumplings stuffed with wood ear mushrooms, five-spice tofu, and seitan; cute little shrimp and pork siu mai, made extra rich with pork fat mixed into the filling; Japanese pork and cabbage gyoza; and Sichuan-style wontons that pack a punch with hot, sour, sweet, and savory flavors. (Don’t forget the dipping sauces, too!)

Not enough of a challenge for you, unstoppable power couple that you are? Try your hands at dumplings that are homemade from start to finish, including the wrappers—like diaphanous har gow crammed with plump shrimp, or hearty Taiwanese pan-fried leek buns (shui jian bao). Perhaps the crowning achievement in a homemade-dumpling résumé, if there is such a thing, is xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, twist-topped bundles of dough hiding a liquid center of broth that gushes when you bite into it. Though they’re not all that difficult to make, they do rely on the gelatin content of homemade broth, so get ready for some extra canoodling over a mound of chicken backs.

You can find even more homemade-dumpling recipes to try out, either solo or together, here.

Tamales

[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

Yes, tamales have a reputation, and a pretty well-deserved one at that, for being terribly labor-intensive. But dammit, is it ever hard to come by a truly good tamale—light, flavorful masa dough wrapped around a savory core of fillings—in the US, unless you live in one of a very few places with strong Mexican-American influences…or unless you have a special someone to help you make them at home. Our guide smooths the way for you by describing the testing process in detail and including photographs of each step in the assembly process. With help from his wife, Josh was able to put together 60 tamales in under half an hour—not a bad turnaround time—before steaming them or freezing for later. Choose a filling of red chili with chicken, roasted peppers and Oaxaca cheese, or green chili with pork.

Sushi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Making makizushi (sushi rolls) is one of the most enjoyable yet approachable hands-on cooking projects you can dream up. It’s less humdrum than filling dumplings or assembling tamales, and, while it does take a bit of practice and maybe just a smidge of artistry, don’t be intimidated! Equipped with a couple of bamboo rolling mats for turning out tight, even rolls—and as long as you remember to keep your hands moistened and avoid laying the rice and fillings on too thick—you’ll be proudly snapping selfies with your very own maki rolls in short order. Look for fresh, soft, deep-green nori sheets, and, of course, use only the freshest raw fish you can find.

Get the recipe for Makizushi (Sushi Rolls) »

See all of our Sushi Week posts »

Spring Rolls

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Though many American eaters associate the name with the crispy, golden-fried sticks from Thai takeout menus, “spring rolls” is a catchall term that encompasses a wide range of filled-and-rolled appetizers, including the lighter, greener version pictured above. At any other time of year, they’re great for entertaining: Set out a platter of filling options—this recipe calls for fried tofu matchsticks, pea shoots, julienned carrots, and piles of fresh herbs—and a stack of flexible rice paper wrappers, and let everyone make their own. For Valentine’s, limit the guest list to just the two of you, stuff yourselves silly, and don’t skimp on the sweet/salty/spicy peanut-tamarind dipping sauce.

Get the recipe for Easy Vegan Crispy Tofu Spring Rolls »

Desserts

Sandwich Cookies

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Any homemade cookie from one of Stella’s recipes should be enough to get you in the mood (or maybe that’s just me I’m thinking of), but sandwich-style cookies will give you an extra chance to lightly touch elbows as you apply dollops of creme and carefully center those top wafers. Choose from BraveTart’s incredible “fauxreos”, bright and crunchy ginger-lemon cookies, E.L. Fudge–style chocolate-filled vanilla cookies, peanut butter and jelly cookies for the kid in you, and soft and tender alfajores con cajeta, to name a few. Springing for a heart-shaped cutter will of course automatically increase your cuteness quotient by 10%.

Milk Duds

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

There’s something about a slightly messy DIY project, especially if the mess it produces is edible, that can’t help but feel a little sensual. You’ve got to check your inhibitions at the door if you want to plunge your hands into a vat of melted chocolate, and that’s exactly how you’ll be coating these chewy caramels—which happily introduces the possibility of secretly touching fingers inside the pot and devising clever methods of getting all that chocolate off of each other. You don’t need us for that, but you will want to closely follow Stella’s instructions for making the caramel, and read up on Kenji’s guide to tempering chocolate.

Get the recipe for Homemade Milk Duds »

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It Takes Two: Cooking Projects for You and Your Va...

New Post has been published on https://cucinacarmela.com/it-takes-two-cooking-projects-for-you-and-your-va/

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[Photograph: Vicky Wasik, Shao Z.]

Let’s make one thing clear right out of the gate: Cooking as a couple isn’t for everyone. (Two years ago, we published a whole essay about this, albeit with a happy ending.) Maybe neither of you has Daniel’s sky-high standards in the kitchen, but successfully assembling a dinner together is one of those projects that tend to pull the veil off a relationship, exposing the tender spots of tension therein: needs for control or approval, tiny currents of judginess or thin competitive streaks. Even absent the complexity introduced by romance, deeply intertwined lives, and intimate knowledge of each other’s foibles, suddenly teaming up on a task that you’re used to doing alone can be a tough row to hoe—think of workplace collaboration, or The Amazing Race. You’ve been warned, is what we’re saying.

But! You’ve clicked on this article, you’ve read this far, and you’re a grown-up (we hope) who (we’ll assume) can point to the strength of your relationship and/or past triumphant team-cooking experiences as ample counterevidence. You already know that making a meal together can be a lovely expression of love, a way to create Valentine’s in your and your partner’s own image, on your own schedule, and avoid the headaches of dining out on that particular day. You’re here for recipes, not marriage advice, for chrissake! Well, fine.

While you can split up the duties required of almost any dish, some projects make more sense for this purpose than others. At the top of the list are any recipes that involve a lot of painstaking assembly, including items made in bulk to be frozen (dumplings and ravioli!) or stored in the pantry (DIY Milk Duds!) for later. Some of these recipes won’t make entrées, much less full meals, but we’ve included them because they provide good opportunities for collaboration, and because cooking projects can be enjoyable and worthwhile even if they don’t directly result in dinner. Pour a couple of glasses of wine and peruse this list together now, then stock up on everything you need well in advance, so you can be as relaxed as possible on the day of.

Homemade Mozzarella

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

High-quality fresh mozzarella—those delicate, moist orbs with a mild flavor of little more than good milk—can be hard to come by if you don’t live in Italy, or, at least, within close range of a well-supplied Italian grocery. Are you and your innamorato destined to go without? Not if we have anything to say about it. Armed with nonhomogenized, low-temperature-pasteurized milk (best obtained from a local farmers market), a couple of specialty ingredients you can order online, and a thorough reading of our explanation, you can take matters into your own hands, kind of literally. The teaming-up part comes when it’s time to stretch and shape the curd: After it’s been divided, both of you can stretch and lovingly shape your own balls of mozz before lowering them into whey to rest. For maximum collaboration, shape the cheese into tiny bocconcini instead of full-size balls, the better to pop into each other’s mouths right after they’re made. No, really: Eat these immediately, totally naked (the cheese, we mean, but y’all do y’all!), or with just a sprinkling of sea salt. Don’t even think about putting them in the fridge for later—true love might wait, but fresh mozzarella does not.

Get the recipe for Fresh Mozzarella From Scratch »

Pasta, All Ways

The Best Fresh Pasta Sheets

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Like making your own mozzarella, rolling and cutting your own fresh pasta dough will give you more than a terrific feeling of personal accomplishment; it’ll also result in a far tastier product than you’ll be able to buy at the vast majority of stores. One person can handle making the dough, sure, but kneading it is time-consuming, so it’s a good candidate for dividing between partners. If you’re using a manual pasta roller, it also helps to have one person feeding the dough in while the other turns the crank. If you’re lucky enough to have a stand mixer attachment for making pasta, well, take turns standing there and looking pretty. (Speaking of looking pretty: Incorporating beet purée is an easy way to turn your pasta a vibrant shade of pink that’s made for Valentine’s Day, without imparting any noticeable beet flavor.)

Get the recipe for Classic Fresh Egg Pasta »

This recipe makes pasta sheets that are ideal for slicing into linguine or fettuccine. Looking for something more involved? May we suggest…

Ravioli and Tortellini

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

If you and your valentine still have energy to burn after rolling out that homemade pasta dough, there’s nothing stopping you from turning it into an impressive spread of mushroom tortellini, ravioli filled with ricotta or butternut squash and blue cheese, or—for the high achievers among you, the couples who go running together in matching compression tights, you know who you are—an eye-popping dish of uovo in raviolo, extra-large ravioli filled with creamy ricotta and a soft-yolked egg. You will probably need a ravioli mold, or at least a fluted pastry wheel, when it’s time to cut the dough shapes, and you’ll definitely want both sets of hands available for portioning out the filling. If you’re making standard ravioli or tortellini, by all means enjoy your work for dinner in the evening, but make enough to freeze and eat later, too.

Stuffed Shells

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Want something a little softer and easier? A filled pasta that’s not quite as handcrafted, but still delicious, one that’ll leave you plenty of time for drinking wine and playing video games? Try our classic ricotta- and spinach-stuffed shells, or this incredible version with shells filled with crab, shrimp, and scallops, a bit like the love child of crab cakes and pasta Alfredo. Both of them start with store-bought dried pasta, but will still go a lot faster when you’ve got two people to do the stuffing.

Ricotta Gnudi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Gnudi comes from the old Tuscan-language equivalent of the word for “naked” in Italian, a name that’s both thematically appropriate for Valentine’s and practically descriptive of the dish: dumpling-like spheres of soft and creamy ricotta that lack a true pasta shell. Instead, they’re individually coated in a layer of semolina flour—a step that’s made quicker and easier with a partner—then allowed to sit until the thinnest of skins form on their exteriors. You’ll need to plan ahead for that step, as it can take a few days, and, above all, don’t skimp on the quality of the ricotta! With barely a fig leaf of pasta to cover it, so to speak, the cheese is highly exposed, which means it needs to be in top form. If excellent ricotta, containing no gums or stabilizers, isn’t available commercially where you live, tack on a bonus cooking project by making your own—it’s much easier than you think.

Get the recipe for Ricotta and Black Pepper Gnudi With Sage and Brown Butter »

A Dumpling Feast

[Photograph: Shao Z.]

With the help of store-bought wonton wrappers, making your own dumpling feast becomes as simple as whipping up the filling and starting up a two-person assembly line: one person to drop filling by the spoonful into each dumpling skin, the other to wet the edges, press, and seal. (For the sake of conjugal harmony, be sure to switch roles now and then, since partner #2 does the lion’s share of the work here.) We’ve got a number of recipes that start with store-bought wrappers, for dumplings as invitingly easy as they are tasty: pan-fried vegetable dumplings stuffed with wood ear mushrooms, five-spice tofu, and seitan; cute little shrimp and pork siu mai, made extra rich with pork fat mixed into the filling; Japanese pork and cabbage gyoza; and Sichuan-style wontons that pack a punch with hot, sour, sweet, and savory flavors. (Don’t forget the dipping sauces, too!)

Not enough of a challenge for you, unstoppable power couple that you are? Try your hands at dumplings that are homemade from start to finish, including the wrappers—like diaphanous har gow crammed with plump shrimp, or hearty Taiwanese pan-fried leek buns (shui jian bao). Perhaps the crowning achievement in a homemade-dumpling résumé, if there is such a thing, is xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, twist-topped bundles of dough hiding a liquid center of broth that gushes when you bite into it. Though they’re not all that difficult to make, they do rely on the gelatin content of homemade broth, so get ready for some extra canoodling over a mound of chicken backs.

You can find even more homemade-dumpling recipes to try out, either solo or together, here.

Tamales

[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

Yes, tamales have a reputation, and a pretty well-deserved one at that, for being terribly labor-intensive. But dammit, is it ever hard to come by a truly good tamale—light, flavorful masa dough wrapped around a savory core of fillings—in the US, unless you live in one of a very few places with strong Mexican-American influences…or unless you have a special someone to help you make them at home. Our guide smooths the way for you by describing the testing process in detail and including photographs of each step in the assembly process. With help from his wife, Josh was able to put together 60 tamales in under half an hour—not a bad turnaround time—before steaming them or freezing for later. Choose a filling of red chili with chicken, roasted peppers and Oaxaca cheese, or green chili with pork.

Sushi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Making makizushi (sushi rolls) is one of the most enjoyable yet approachable hands-on cooking projects you can dream up. It’s less humdrum than filling dumplings or assembling tamales, and, while it does take a bit of practice and maybe just a smidge of artistry, don’t be intimidated! Equipped with a couple of bamboo rolling mats for turning out tight, even rolls—and as long as you remember to keep your hands moistened and avoid laying the rice and fillings on too thick—you’ll be proudly snapping selfies with your very own maki rolls in short order. Look for fresh, soft, deep-green nori sheets, and, of course, use only the freshest raw fish you can find.

Get the recipe for Makizushi (Sushi Rolls) »

See all of our Sushi Week posts »

Spring Rolls

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Though many American eaters associate the name with the crispy, golden-fried sticks from Thai takeout menus, “spring rolls” is a catchall term that encompasses a wide range of filled-and-rolled appetizers, including the lighter, greener version pictured above. At any other time of year, they’re great for entertaining: Set out a platter of filling options—this recipe calls for fried tofu matchsticks, pea shoots, julienned carrots, and piles of fresh herbs—and a stack of flexible rice paper wrappers, and let everyone make their own. For Valentine’s, limit the guest list to just the two of you, stuff yourselves silly, and don’t skimp on the sweet/salty/spicy peanut-tamarind dipping sauce.

Get the recipe for Easy Vegan Crispy Tofu Spring Rolls »

Desserts

Sandwich Cookies

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Any homemade cookie from one of Stella’s recipes should be enough to get you in the mood (or maybe that’s just me I’m thinking of), but sandwich-style cookies will give you an extra chance to lightly touch elbows as you apply dollops of creme and carefully center those top wafers. Choose from BraveTart’s incredible “fauxreos”, bright and crunchy ginger-lemon cookies, E.L. Fudge–style chocolate-filled vanilla cookies, peanut butter and jelly cookies for the kid in you, and soft and tender alfajores con cajeta, to name a few. Springing for a heart-shaped cutter will of course automatically increase your cuteness quotient by 10%.

Milk Duds

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

There’s something about a slightly messy DIY project, especially if the mess it produces is edible, that can’t help but feel a little sensual. You’ve got to check your inhibitions at the door if you want to plunge your hands into a vat of melted chocolate, and that’s exactly how you’ll be coating these chewy caramels—which happily introduces the possibility of secretly touching fingers inside the pot and devising clever methods of getting all that chocolate off of each other. You don’t need us for that, but you will want to closely follow Stella’s instructions for making the caramel, and read up on Kenji’s guide to tempering chocolate.

Get the recipe for Homemade Milk Duds »

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It Takes Two: Cooking Projects for You and Your Va...

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[Photograph: Vicky Wasik, Shao Z.]

Let’s make one thing clear right out of the gate: Cooking as a couple isn’t for everyone. (Two years ago, we published a whole essay about this, albeit with a happy ending.) Maybe neither of you has Daniel’s sky-high standards in the kitchen, but successfully assembling a dinner together is one of those projects that tend to pull the veil off a relationship, exposing the tender spots of tension therein: needs for control or approval, tiny currents of judginess or thin competitive streaks. Even absent the complexity introduced by romance, deeply intertwined lives, and intimate knowledge of each other’s foibles, suddenly teaming up on a task that you’re used to doing alone can be a tough row to hoe—think of workplace collaboration, or The Amazing Race. You’ve been warned, is what we’re saying.

But! You’ve clicked on this article, you’ve read this far, and you’re a grown-up (we hope) who (we’ll assume) can point to the strength of your relationship and/or past triumphant team-cooking experiences as ample counterevidence. You already know that making a meal together can be a lovely expression of love, a way to create Valentine’s in your and your partner’s own image, on your own schedule, and avoid the headaches of dining out on that particular day. You’re here for recipes, not marriage advice, for chrissake! Well, fine.

While you can split up the duties required of almost any dish, some projects make more sense for this purpose than others. At the top of the list are any recipes that involve a lot of painstaking assembly, including items made in bulk to be frozen (dumplings and ravioli!) or stored in the pantry (DIY Milk Duds!) for later. Some of these recipes won’t make entrées, much less full meals, but we’ve included them because they provide good opportunities for collaboration, and because cooking projects can be enjoyable and worthwhile even if they don’t directly result in dinner. Pour a couple of glasses of wine and peruse this list together now, then stock up on everything you need well in advance, so you can be as relaxed as possible on the day of.

Homemade Mozzarella

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

High-quality fresh mozzarella—those delicate, moist orbs with a mild flavor of little more than good milk—can be hard to come by if you don’t live in Italy, or, at least, within close range of a well-supplied Italian grocery. Are you and your innamorato destined to go without? Not if we have anything to say about it. Armed with nonhomogenized, low-temperature-pasteurized milk (best obtained from a local farmers market), a couple of specialty ingredients you can order online, and a thorough reading of our explanation, you can take matters into your own hands, kind of literally. The teaming-up part comes when it’s time to stretch and shape the curd: After it’s been divided, both of you can stretch and lovingly shape your own balls of mozz before lowering them into whey to rest. For maximum collaboration, shape the cheese into tiny bocconcini instead of full-size balls, the better to pop into each other’s mouths right after they’re made. No, really: Eat these immediately, totally naked (the cheese, we mean, but y’all do y’all!), or with just a sprinkling of sea salt. Don’t even think about putting them in the fridge for later—true love might wait, but fresh mozzarella does not.

Get the recipe for Fresh Mozzarella From Scratch »

Pasta, All Ways

The Best Fresh Pasta Sheets

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Like making your own mozzarella, rolling and cutting your own fresh pasta dough will give you more than a terrific feeling of personal accomplishment; it’ll also result in a far tastier product than you’ll be able to buy at the vast majority of stores. One person can handle making the dough, sure, but kneading it is time-consuming, so it’s a good candidate for dividing between partners. If you’re using a manual pasta roller, it also helps to have one person feeding the dough in while the other turns the crank. If you’re lucky enough to have a stand mixer attachment for making pasta, well, take turns standing there and looking pretty. (Speaking of looking pretty: Incorporating beet purée is an easy way to turn your pasta a vibrant shade of pink that’s made for Valentine’s Day, without imparting any noticeable beet flavor.)

Get the recipe for Classic Fresh Egg Pasta »

This recipe makes pasta sheets that are ideal for slicing into linguine or fettuccine. Looking for something more involved? May we suggest…

Ravioli and Tortellini

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

If you and your valentine still have energy to burn after rolling out that homemade pasta dough, there’s nothing stopping you from turning it into an impressive spread of mushroom tortellini, ravioli filled with ricotta or butternut squash and blue cheese, or—for the high achievers among you, the couples who go running together in matching compression tights, you know who you are—an eye-popping dish of uovo in raviolo, extra-large ravioli filled with creamy ricotta and a soft-yolked egg. You will probably need a ravioli mold, or at least a fluted pastry wheel, when it’s time to cut the dough shapes, and you’ll definitely want both sets of hands available for portioning out the filling. If you’re making standard ravioli or tortellini, by all means enjoy your work for dinner in the evening, but make enough to freeze and eat later, too.

Stuffed Shells

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Want something a little softer and easier? A filled pasta that’s not quite as handcrafted, but still delicious, one that’ll leave you plenty of time for drinking wine and playing video games? Try our classic ricotta- and spinach-stuffed shells, or this incredible version with shells filled with crab, shrimp, and scallops, a bit like the love child of crab cakes and pasta Alfredo. Both of them start with store-bought dried pasta, but will still go a lot faster when you’ve got two people to do the stuffing.

Ricotta Gnudi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Gnudi comes from the old Tuscan-language equivalent of the word for “naked” in Italian, a name that’s both thematically appropriate for Valentine’s and practically descriptive of the dish: dumpling-like spheres of soft and creamy ricotta that lack a true pasta shell. Instead, they’re individually coated in a layer of semolina flour—a step that’s made quicker and easier with a partner—then allowed to sit until the thinnest of skins form on their exteriors. You’ll need to plan ahead for that step, as it can take a few days, and, above all, don’t skimp on the quality of the ricotta! With barely a fig leaf of pasta to cover it, so to speak, the cheese is highly exposed, which means it needs to be in top form. If excellent ricotta, containing no gums or stabilizers, isn’t available commercially where you live, tack on a bonus cooking project by making your own—it’s much easier than you think.

Get the recipe for Ricotta and Black Pepper Gnudi With Sage and Brown Butter »

A Dumpling Feast

[Photograph: Shao Z.]

With the help of store-bought wonton wrappers, making your own dumpling feast becomes as simple as whipping up the filling and starting up a two-person assembly line: one person to drop filling by the spoonful into each dumpling skin, the other to wet the edges, press, and seal. (For the sake of conjugal harmony, be sure to switch roles now and then, since partner #2 does the lion’s share of the work here.) We’ve got a number of recipes that start with store-bought wrappers, for dumplings as invitingly easy as they are tasty: pan-fried vegetable dumplings stuffed with wood ear mushrooms, five-spice tofu, and seitan; cute little shrimp and pork siu mai, made extra rich with pork fat mixed into the filling; Japanese pork and cabbage gyoza; and Sichuan-style wontons that pack a punch with hot, sour, sweet, and savory flavors. (Don’t forget the dipping sauces, too!)

Not enough of a challenge for you, unstoppable power couple that you are? Try your hands at dumplings that are homemade from start to finish, including the wrappers—like diaphanous har gow crammed with plump shrimp, or hearty Taiwanese pan-fried leek buns (shui jian bao). Perhaps the crowning achievement in a homemade-dumpling résumé, if there is such a thing, is xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, twist-topped bundles of dough hiding a liquid center of broth that gushes when you bite into it. Though they’re not all that difficult to make, they do rely on the gelatin content of homemade broth, so get ready for some extra canoodling over a mound of chicken backs.

You can find even more homemade-dumpling recipes to try out, either solo or together, here.

Tamales

[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

Yes, tamales have a reputation, and a pretty well-deserved one at that, for being terribly labor-intensive. But dammit, is it ever hard to come by a truly good tamale—light, flavorful masa dough wrapped around a savory core of fillings—in the US, unless you live in one of a very few places with strong Mexican-American influences…or unless you have a special someone to help you make them at home. Our guide smooths the way for you by describing the testing process in detail and including photographs of each step in the assembly process. With help from his wife, Josh was able to put together 60 tamales in under half an hour—not a bad turnaround time—before steaming them or freezing for later. Choose a filling of red chili with chicken, roasted peppers and Oaxaca cheese, or green chili with pork.

Sushi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Making makizushi (sushi rolls) is one of the most enjoyable yet approachable hands-on cooking projects you can dream up. It’s less humdrum than filling dumplings or assembling tamales, and, while it does take a bit of practice and maybe just a smidge of artistry, don’t be intimidated! Equipped with a couple of bamboo rolling mats for turning out tight, even rolls—and as long as you remember to keep your hands moistened and avoid laying the rice and fillings on too thick—you’ll be proudly snapping selfies with your very own maki rolls in short order. Look for fresh, soft, deep-green nori sheets, and, of course, use only the freshest raw fish you can find.

Get the recipe for Makizushi (Sushi Rolls) »

See all of our Sushi Week posts »

Spring Rolls

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Though many American eaters associate the name with the crispy, golden-fried sticks from Thai takeout menus, “spring rolls” is a catchall term that encompasses a wide range of filled-and-rolled appetizers, including the lighter, greener version pictured above. At any other time of year, they’re great for entertaining: Set out a platter of filling options—this recipe calls for fried tofu matchsticks, pea shoots, julienned carrots, and piles of fresh herbs—and a stack of flexible rice paper wrappers, and let everyone make their own. For Valentine’s, limit the guest list to just the two of you, stuff yourselves silly, and don’t skimp on the sweet/salty/spicy peanut-tamarind dipping sauce.

Get the recipe for Easy Vegan Crispy Tofu Spring Rolls »

Desserts

Sandwich Cookies

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Any homemade cookie from one of Stella’s recipes should be enough to get you in the mood (or maybe that’s just me I’m thinking of), but sandwich-style cookies will give you an extra chance to lightly touch elbows as you apply dollops of creme and carefully center those top wafers. Choose from BraveTart’s incredible “fauxreos”, bright and crunchy ginger-lemon cookies, E.L. Fudge–style chocolate-filled vanilla cookies, peanut butter and jelly cookies for the kid in you, and soft and tender alfajores con cajeta, to name a few. Springing for a heart-shaped cutter will of course automatically increase your cuteness quotient by 10%.

Milk Duds

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

There’s something about a slightly messy DIY project, especially if the mess it produces is edible, that can’t help but feel a little sensual. You’ve got to check your inhibitions at the door if you want to plunge your hands into a vat of melted chocolate, and that’s exactly how you’ll be coating these chewy caramels—which happily introduces the possibility of secretly touching fingers inside the pot and devising clever methods of getting all that chocolate off of each other. You don’t need us for that, but you will want to closely follow Stella’s instructions for making the caramel, and read up on Kenji’s guide to tempering chocolate.

Get the recipe for Homemade Milk Duds »

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It Takes Two: Cooking Projects for You and Your Va...

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[Photograph: Vicky Wasik, Shao Z.]

Let’s make one thing clear right out of the gate: Cooking as a couple isn’t for everyone. (Two years ago, we published a whole essay about this, albeit with a happy ending.) Maybe neither of you has Daniel’s sky-high standards in the kitchen, but successfully assembling a dinner together is one of those projects that tend to pull the veil off a relationship, exposing the tender spots of tension therein: needs for control or approval, tiny currents of judginess or thin competitive streaks. Even absent the complexity introduced by romance, deeply intertwined lives, and intimate knowledge of each other’s foibles, suddenly teaming up on a task that you’re used to doing alone can be a tough row to hoe—think of workplace collaboration, or The Amazing Race. You’ve been warned, is what we’re saying.

But! You’ve clicked on this article, you’ve read this far, and you’re a grown-up (we hope) who (we’ll assume) can point to the strength of your relationship and/or past triumphant team-cooking experiences as ample counterevidence. You already know that making a meal together can be a lovely expression of love, a way to create Valentine’s in your and your partner’s own image, on your own schedule, and avoid the headaches of dining out on that particular day. You’re here for recipes, not marriage advice, for chrissake! Well, fine.

While you can split up the duties required of almost any dish, some projects make more sense for this purpose than others. At the top of the list are any recipes that involve a lot of painstaking assembly, including items made in bulk to be frozen (dumplings and ravioli!) or stored in the pantry (DIY Milk Duds!) for later. Some of these recipes won’t make entrées, much less full meals, but we’ve included them because they provide good opportunities for collaboration, and because cooking projects can be enjoyable and worthwhile even if they don’t directly result in dinner. Pour a couple of glasses of wine and peruse this list together now, then stock up on everything you need well in advance, so you can be as relaxed as possible on the day of.

Homemade Mozzarella

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

High-quality fresh mozzarella—those delicate, moist orbs with a mild flavor of little more than good milk—can be hard to come by if you don’t live in Italy, or, at least, within close range of a well-supplied Italian grocery. Are you and your innamorato destined to go without? Not if we have anything to say about it. Armed with nonhomogenized, low-temperature-pasteurized milk (best obtained from a local farmers market), a couple of specialty ingredients you can order online, and a thorough reading of our explanation, you can take matters into your own hands, kind of literally. The teaming-up part comes when it’s time to stretch and shape the curd: After it’s been divided, both of you can stretch and lovingly shape your own balls of mozz before lowering them into whey to rest. For maximum collaboration, shape the cheese into tiny bocconcini instead of full-size balls, the better to pop into each other’s mouths right after they’re made. No, really: Eat these immediately, totally naked (the cheese, we mean, but y’all do y’all!), or with just a sprinkling of sea salt. Don’t even think about putting them in the fridge for later—true love might wait, but fresh mozzarella does not.

Get the recipe for Fresh Mozzarella From Scratch »

Pasta, All Ways

The Best Fresh Pasta Sheets

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Like making your own mozzarella, rolling and cutting your own fresh pasta dough will give you more than a terrific feeling of personal accomplishment; it’ll also result in a far tastier product than you’ll be able to buy at the vast majority of stores. One person can handle making the dough, sure, but kneading it is time-consuming, so it’s a good candidate for dividing between partners. If you’re using a manual pasta roller, it also helps to have one person feeding the dough in while the other turns the crank. If you’re lucky enough to have a stand mixer attachment for making pasta, well, take turns standing there and looking pretty. (Speaking of looking pretty: Incorporating beet purée is an easy way to turn your pasta a vibrant shade of pink that’s made for Valentine’s Day, without imparting any noticeable beet flavor.)

Get the recipe for Classic Fresh Egg Pasta »

This recipe makes pasta sheets that are ideal for slicing into linguine or fettuccine. Looking for something more involved? May we suggest…

Ravioli and Tortellini

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

If you and your valentine still have energy to burn after rolling out that homemade pasta dough, there’s nothing stopping you from turning it into an impressive spread of mushroom tortellini, ravioli filled with ricotta or butternut squash and blue cheese, or—for the high achievers among you, the couples who go running together in matching compression tights, you know who you are—an eye-popping dish of uovo in raviolo, extra-large ravioli filled with creamy ricotta and a soft-yolked egg. You will probably need a ravioli mold, or at least a fluted pastry wheel, when it’s time to cut the dough shapes, and you’ll definitely want both sets of hands available for portioning out the filling. If you’re making standard ravioli or tortellini, by all means enjoy your work for dinner in the evening, but make enough to freeze and eat later, too.

Stuffed Shells

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Want something a little softer and easier? A filled pasta that’s not quite as handcrafted, but still delicious, one that’ll leave you plenty of time for drinking wine and playing video games? Try our classic ricotta- and spinach-stuffed shells, or this incredible version with shells filled with crab, shrimp, and scallops, a bit like the love child of crab cakes and pasta Alfredo. Both of them start with store-bought dried pasta, but will still go a lot faster when you’ve got two people to do the stuffing.

Ricotta Gnudi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Gnudi comes from the old Tuscan-language equivalent of the word for “naked” in Italian, a name that’s both thematically appropriate for Valentine’s and practically descriptive of the dish: dumpling-like spheres of soft and creamy ricotta that lack a true pasta shell. Instead, they’re individually coated in a layer of semolina flour—a step that’s made quicker and easier with a partner—then allowed to sit until the thinnest of skins form on their exteriors. You’ll need to plan ahead for that step, as it can take a few days, and, above all, don’t skimp on the quality of the ricotta! With barely a fig leaf of pasta to cover it, so to speak, the cheese is highly exposed, which means it needs to be in top form. If excellent ricotta, containing no gums or stabilizers, isn’t available commercially where you live, tack on a bonus cooking project by making your own—it’s much easier than you think.

Get the recipe for Ricotta and Black Pepper Gnudi With Sage and Brown Butter »

A Dumpling Feast

[Photograph: Shao Z.]

With the help of store-bought wonton wrappers, making your own dumpling feast becomes as simple as whipping up the filling and starting up a two-person assembly line: one person to drop filling by the spoonful into each dumpling skin, the other to wet the edges, press, and seal. (For the sake of conjugal harmony, be sure to switch roles now and then, since partner #2 does the lion’s share of the work here.) We’ve got a number of recipes that start with store-bought wrappers, for dumplings as invitingly easy as they are tasty: pan-fried vegetable dumplings stuffed with wood ear mushrooms, five-spice tofu, and seitan; cute little shrimp and pork siu mai, made extra rich with pork fat mixed into the filling; Japanese pork and cabbage gyoza; and Sichuan-style wontons that pack a punch with hot, sour, sweet, and savory flavors. (Don’t forget the dipping sauces, too!)

Not enough of a challenge for you, unstoppable power couple that you are? Try your hands at dumplings that are homemade from start to finish, including the wrappers—like diaphanous har gow crammed with plump shrimp, or hearty Taiwanese pan-fried leek buns (shui jian bao). Perhaps the crowning achievement in a homemade-dumpling résumé, if there is such a thing, is xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, twist-topped bundles of dough hiding a liquid center of broth that gushes when you bite into it. Though they’re not all that difficult to make, they do rely on the gelatin content of homemade broth, so get ready for some extra canoodling over a mound of chicken backs.

You can find even more homemade-dumpling recipes to try out, either solo or together, here.

Tamales

[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

Yes, tamales have a reputation, and a pretty well-deserved one at that, for being terribly labor-intensive. But dammit, is it ever hard to come by a truly good tamale—light, flavorful masa dough wrapped around a savory core of fillings—in the US, unless you live in one of a very few places with strong Mexican-American influences…or unless you have a special someone to help you make them at home. Our guide smooths the way for you by describing the testing process in detail and including photographs of each step in the assembly process. With help from his wife, Josh was able to put together 60 tamales in under half an hour—not a bad turnaround time—before steaming them or freezing for later. Choose a filling of red chili with chicken, roasted peppers and Oaxaca cheese, or green chili with pork.

Sushi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Making makizushi (sushi rolls) is one of the most enjoyable yet approachable hands-on cooking projects you can dream up. It’s less humdrum than filling dumplings or assembling tamales, and, while it does take a bit of practice and maybe just a smidge of artistry, don’t be intimidated! Equipped with a couple of bamboo rolling mats for turning out tight, even rolls—and as long as you remember to keep your hands moistened and avoid laying the rice and fillings on too thick—you’ll be proudly snapping selfies with your very own maki rolls in short order. Look for fresh, soft, deep-green nori sheets, and, of course, use only the freshest raw fish you can find.

Get the recipe for Makizushi (Sushi Rolls) »

See all of our Sushi Week posts »

Spring Rolls

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Though many American eaters associate the name with the crispy, golden-fried sticks from Thai takeout menus, “spring rolls” is a catchall term that encompasses a wide range of filled-and-rolled appetizers, including the lighter, greener version pictured above. At any other time of year, they’re great for entertaining: Set out a platter of filling options—this recipe calls for fried tofu matchsticks, pea shoots, julienned carrots, and piles of fresh herbs—and a stack of flexible rice paper wrappers, and let everyone make their own. For Valentine’s, limit the guest list to just the two of you, stuff yourselves silly, and don’t skimp on the sweet/salty/spicy peanut-tamarind dipping sauce.

Get the recipe for Easy Vegan Crispy Tofu Spring Rolls »

Desserts

Sandwich Cookies

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Any homemade cookie from one of Stella’s recipes should be enough to get you in the mood (or maybe that’s just me I’m thinking of), but sandwich-style cookies will give you an extra chance to lightly touch elbows as you apply dollops of creme and carefully center those top wafers. Choose from BraveTart’s incredible “fauxreos”, bright and crunchy ginger-lemon cookies, E.L. Fudge–style chocolate-filled vanilla cookies, peanut butter and jelly cookies for the kid in you, and soft and tender alfajores con cajeta, to name a few. Springing for a heart-shaped cutter will of course automatically increase your cuteness quotient by 10%.

Milk Duds

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

There’s something about a slightly messy DIY project, especially if the mess it produces is edible, that can’t help but feel a little sensual. You’ve got to check your inhibitions at the door if you want to plunge your hands into a vat of melted chocolate, and that’s exactly how you’ll be coating these chewy caramels—which happily introduces the possibility of secretly touching fingers inside the pot and devising clever methods of getting all that chocolate off of each other. You don’t need us for that, but you will want to closely follow Stella’s instructions for making the caramel, and read up on Kenji’s guide to tempering chocolate.

Get the recipe for Homemade Milk Duds »

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It Takes Two: Cooking Projects for You and Your Va...

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[Photograph: Vicky Wasik, Shao Z.]

Let’s make one thing clear right out of the gate: Cooking as a couple isn’t for everyone. (Two years ago, we published a whole essay about this, albeit with a happy ending.) Maybe neither of you has Daniel’s sky-high standards in the kitchen, but successfully assembling a dinner together is one of those projects that tend to pull the veil off a relationship, exposing the tender spots of tension therein: needs for control or approval, tiny currents of judginess or thin competitive streaks. Even absent the complexity introduced by romance, deeply intertwined lives, and intimate knowledge of each other’s foibles, suddenly teaming up on a task that you’re used to doing alone can be a tough row to hoe—think of workplace collaboration, or The Amazing Race. You’ve been warned, is what we’re saying.

But! You’ve clicked on this article, you’ve read this far, and you’re a grown-up (we hope) who (we’ll assume) can point to the strength of your relationship and/or past triumphant team-cooking experiences as ample counterevidence. You already know that making a meal together can be a lovely expression of love, a way to create Valentine’s in your and your partner’s own image, on your own schedule, and avoid the headaches of dining out on that particular day. You’re here for recipes, not marriage advice, for chrissake! Well, fine.

While you can split up the duties required of almost any dish, some projects make more sense for this purpose than others. At the top of the list are any recipes that involve a lot of painstaking assembly, including items made in bulk to be frozen (dumplings and ravioli!) or stored in the pantry (DIY Milk Duds!) for later. Some of these recipes won’t make entrées, much less full meals, but we’ve included them because they provide good opportunities for collaboration, and because cooking projects can be enjoyable and worthwhile even if they don’t directly result in dinner. Pour a couple of glasses of wine and peruse this list together now, then stock up on everything you need well in advance, so you can be as relaxed as possible on the day of.

Homemade Mozzarella

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

High-quality fresh mozzarella—those delicate, moist orbs with a mild flavor of little more than good milk—can be hard to come by if you don’t live in Italy, or, at least, within close range of a well-supplied Italian grocery. Are you and your innamorato destined to go without? Not if we have anything to say about it. Armed with nonhomogenized, low-temperature-pasteurized milk (best obtained from a local farmers market), a couple of specialty ingredients you can order online, and a thorough reading of our explanation, you can take matters into your own hands, kind of literally. The teaming-up part comes when it’s time to stretch and shape the curd: After it’s been divided, both of you can stretch and lovingly shape your own balls of mozz before lowering them into whey to rest. For maximum collaboration, shape the cheese into tiny bocconcini instead of full-size balls, the better to pop into each other’s mouths right after they’re made. No, really: Eat these immediately, totally naked (the cheese, we mean, but y’all do y’all!), or with just a sprinkling of sea salt. Don’t even think about putting them in the fridge for later—true love might wait, but fresh mozzarella does not.

Get the recipe for Fresh Mozzarella From Scratch »

Pasta, All Ways

The Best Fresh Pasta Sheets

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Like making your own mozzarella, rolling and cutting your own fresh pasta dough will give you more than a terrific feeling of personal accomplishment; it’ll also result in a far tastier product than you’ll be able to buy at the vast majority of stores. One person can handle making the dough, sure, but kneading it is time-consuming, so it’s a good candidate for dividing between partners. If you’re using a manual pasta roller, it also helps to have one person feeding the dough in while the other turns the crank. If you’re lucky enough to have a stand mixer attachment for making pasta, well, take turns standing there and looking pretty. (Speaking of looking pretty: Incorporating beet purée is an easy way to turn your pasta a vibrant shade of pink that’s made for Valentine’s Day, without imparting any noticeable beet flavor.)

Get the recipe for Classic Fresh Egg Pasta »

This recipe makes pasta sheets that are ideal for slicing into linguine or fettuccine. Looking for something more involved? May we suggest…

Ravioli and Tortellini

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

If you and your valentine still have energy to burn after rolling out that homemade pasta dough, there’s nothing stopping you from turning it into an impressive spread of mushroom tortellini, ravioli filled with ricotta or butternut squash and blue cheese, or—for the high achievers among you, the couples who go running together in matching compression tights, you know who you are—an eye-popping dish of uovo in raviolo, extra-large ravioli filled with creamy ricotta and a soft-yolked egg. You will probably need a ravioli mold, or at least a fluted pastry wheel, when it’s time to cut the dough shapes, and you’ll definitely want both sets of hands available for portioning out the filling. If you’re making standard ravioli or tortellini, by all means enjoy your work for dinner in the evening, but make enough to freeze and eat later, too.

Stuffed Shells

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Want something a little softer and easier? A filled pasta that’s not quite as handcrafted, but still delicious, one that’ll leave you plenty of time for drinking wine and playing video games? Try our classic ricotta- and spinach-stuffed shells, or this incredible version with shells filled with crab, shrimp, and scallops, a bit like the love child of crab cakes and pasta Alfredo. Both of them start with store-bought dried pasta, but will still go a lot faster when you’ve got two people to do the stuffing.

Ricotta Gnudi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Gnudi comes from the old Tuscan-language equivalent of the word for “naked” in Italian, a name that’s both thematically appropriate for Valentine’s and practically descriptive of the dish: dumpling-like spheres of soft and creamy ricotta that lack a true pasta shell. Instead, they’re individually coated in a layer of semolina flour—a step that’s made quicker and easier with a partner—then allowed to sit until the thinnest of skins form on their exteriors. You’ll need to plan ahead for that step, as it can take a few days, and, above all, don’t skimp on the quality of the ricotta! With barely a fig leaf of pasta to cover it, so to speak, the cheese is highly exposed, which means it needs to be in top form. If excellent ricotta, containing no gums or stabilizers, isn’t available commercially where you live, tack on a bonus cooking project by making your own—it’s much easier than you think.

Get the recipe for Ricotta and Black Pepper Gnudi With Sage and Brown Butter »

A Dumpling Feast

[Photograph: Shao Z.]

With the help of store-bought wonton wrappers, making your own dumpling feast becomes as simple as whipping up the filling and starting up a two-person assembly line: one person to drop filling by the spoonful into each dumpling skin, the other to wet the edges, press, and seal. (For the sake of conjugal harmony, be sure to switch roles now and then, since partner #2 does the lion’s share of the work here.) We’ve got a number of recipes that start with store-bought wrappers, for dumplings as invitingly easy as they are tasty: pan-fried vegetable dumplings stuffed with wood ear mushrooms, five-spice tofu, and seitan; cute little shrimp and pork siu mai, made extra rich with pork fat mixed into the filling; Japanese pork and cabbage gyoza; and Sichuan-style wontons that pack a punch with hot, sour, sweet, and savory flavors. (Don’t forget the dipping sauces, too!)

Not enough of a challenge for you, unstoppable power couple that you are? Try your hands at dumplings that are homemade from start to finish, including the wrappers—like diaphanous har gow crammed with plump shrimp, or hearty Taiwanese pan-fried leek buns (shui jian bao). Perhaps the crowning achievement in a homemade-dumpling résumé, if there is such a thing, is xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, twist-topped bundles of dough hiding a liquid center of broth that gushes when you bite into it. Though they’re not all that difficult to make, they do rely on the gelatin content of homemade broth, so get ready for some extra canoodling over a mound of chicken backs.

You can find even more homemade-dumpling recipes to try out, either solo or together, here.

Tamales

[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

Yes, tamales have a reputation, and a pretty well-deserved one at that, for being terribly labor-intensive. But dammit, is it ever hard to come by a truly good tamale—light, flavorful masa dough wrapped around a savory core of fillings—in the US, unless you live in one of a very few places with strong Mexican-American influences…or unless you have a special someone to help you make them at home. Our guide smooths the way for you by describing the testing process in detail and including photographs of each step in the assembly process. With help from his wife, Josh was able to put together 60 tamales in under half an hour—not a bad turnaround time—before steaming them or freezing for later. Choose a filling of red chili with chicken, roasted peppers and Oaxaca cheese, or green chili with pork.

Sushi

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Making makizushi (sushi rolls) is one of the most enjoyable yet approachable hands-on cooking projects you can dream up. It’s less humdrum than filling dumplings or assembling tamales, and, while it does take a bit of practice and maybe just a smidge of artistry, don’t be intimidated! Equipped with a couple of bamboo rolling mats for turning out tight, even rolls—and as long as you remember to keep your hands moistened and avoid laying the rice and fillings on too thick—you’ll be proudly snapping selfies with your very own maki rolls in short order. Look for fresh, soft, deep-green nori sheets, and, of course, use only the freshest raw fish you can find.

Get the recipe for Makizushi (Sushi Rolls) »

See all of our Sushi Week posts »

Spring Rolls

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Though many American eaters associate the name with the crispy, golden-fried sticks from Thai takeout menus, “spring rolls” is a catchall term that encompasses a wide range of filled-and-rolled appetizers, including the lighter, greener version pictured above. At any other time of year, they’re great for entertaining: Set out a platter of filling options—this recipe calls for fried tofu matchsticks, pea shoots, julienned carrots, and piles of fresh herbs—and a stack of flexible rice paper wrappers, and let everyone make their own. For Valentine’s, limit the guest list to just the two of you, stuff yourselves silly, and don’t skimp on the sweet/salty/spicy peanut-tamarind dipping sauce.

Get the recipe for Easy Vegan Crispy Tofu Spring Rolls »

Desserts

Sandwich Cookies

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Any homemade cookie from one of Stella’s recipes should be enough to get you in the mood (or maybe that’s just me I’m thinking of), but sandwich-style cookies will give you an extra chance to lightly touch elbows as you apply dollops of creme and carefully center those top wafers. Choose from BraveTart’s incredible “fauxreos”, bright and crunchy ginger-lemon cookies, E.L. Fudge–style chocolate-filled vanilla cookies, peanut butter and jelly cookies for the kid in you, and soft and tender alfajores con cajeta, to name a few. Springing for a heart-shaped cutter will of course automatically increase your cuteness quotient by 10%.

Milk Duds

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

There’s something about a slightly messy DIY project, especially if the mess it produces is edible, that can’t help but feel a little sensual. You’ve got to check your inhibitions at the door if you want to plunge your hands into a vat of melted chocolate, and that’s exactly how you’ll be coating these chewy caramels—which happily introduces the possibility of secretly touching fingers inside the pot and devising clever methods of getting all that chocolate off of each other. You don’t need us for that, but you will want to closely follow Stella’s instructions for making the caramel, and read up on Kenji’s guide to tempering chocolate.

Get the recipe for Homemade Milk Duds »

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