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Crafting the perfect Valentine’s Day dinner menu is, in our humble opinion, the unspoken sixth love language — and perhaps the most romantic of them all. Everyone loves a homemade meal, especially one that is well thought-out. Luckily, we have created an unforgettable lineup of 50 Valentine’s Day dinner recipes that are fit for the occasion.
Here you will find plenty of entrées and side dishes to choose from. Whether you’re craving a classic roast chicken, a quick and easy one-pan pasta or the most decadent steak dinner of your life, we have options. Some recipes come together in just 30 minutes while others, like beef Wellington and tender braised short ribs, require ample time and attention.
When it comes to the main event, there are plenty of vegetarian-friendly options to choose from: whip up a lighter version of eggplant Parmesan; swap out the meat for umami-rich mushrooms in a hearty homemade ragu; dig into one of four gooey baked pasta dishes; or set French onion soup front and center. Don’t let the main dishes steal the spotlight. As anyone who has hosted a holiday dinner knows, the sides are the most important part.
Dig into a cozy bowl of Parmesan-topped risotto, snack on a crispy bacon and caramelized onion flatbread or add a batch of nutritious ratatouille to the mix. Whichever Valentine’s Day dinner recipes you make for your sweetheart, you’re guaranteed to fall in love. While it does require some patience and attention, risotto is a relatively simple dish that’s well worth the effort.
This recipe follows the classic method and is flavored with plenty of Parmesan cheese. The air fryer can be a great tool to use in your kitchen — even for something like a meaty steak. Here, we like to use it to cook fatty ribeye steaks to a mouthwatering medium-rare without you having to stand over the stove.
One of the best things to add to a Valentine’s Day dinner menu is a cozy pasta dish. This classic Roman pasta dish features Pecorino Romano and smoky guanciale, making it fit for a special occasion. Wondering how to make pork tenderloins a little more exciting? Marinate them in a combination of apple cider, maple syrup, ginger, fennel, coriander and cinnamon.
A stovetop plum chutney is perfect for serving alongside — if you can’t find fresh plums this time of year, opt for something like frozen cherries, which can be found year-round. For an intimate dinner for two, steak and potatoes is the way to go. Crispy smashed baby potatoes are dusted generously with Parmesan cheese and black pepper, then roasted until crispy.
Pro tip: let your steaks come to room temperature for an entire hour before searing to ensure that they remain tender. Even if you can’t fly your loved one to the city of love, this French classic deserves a place on your table. We’re very pro-onion, even on romantic occasions such as these.
Who can resist when this flavorful soup is topped with crusty bread and plenty of melty Gruyère cheese? In addition to the pasta, all you need to make this dish is Pecorino Romano cheese, salt, pepper and either olive oil or butter. It gets its creamy, ultra-silky sauce from nothing but the starchy pasta water. We adore this twist on traditional shrimp scampi for a cozy meal during winter.
Here, seasoned shrimp and breadcrumbs sit atop herby ricotta-stuffed shells. Go all out for your sweetheart this year with an epic, chef-approved paella. You get a little taste of everything with this paella, which pairs chicken, chorizo and shellfish with fluffy saffron rice and lemon aioli.
With a flavorful vodka sauce, you can make even a simple pasta dinner more elegant. This sauce is made with homemade tomato sauce and pancetta. Don’t forget to grate the cheese tableside.
This caramelized onion, bacon and goat cheese tart is perfect for sharing with your sweetheart or galentine’s. It’s made with just five main ingredients — one of them being store-bought pizza dough for ease. What better occasion to make this social media sensation of a recipe than on the most romantic day of the year? The sauce that coats the chicken is made with all kinds of good stuff — namely sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, heavy cream and Parmesan cheese.
Quick and impressive — those are just two words that describe this classic Italian-American seafood pasta dish. In the time it takes to boil the linguine, you can make the brothy sauce and cook the clams. This is a great starter recipe if you want to try your hand at cooking scallops for your dinner date.
All they need is a quick sear in a hot pan before dousing them with thyme-infused butter. They’ll pair well with any side dish of your choice, from a crisp salad to risotto. What might seem like a basic chicken noodle soup is anything but.
Along with the usual mirepoix (made with onion, carrots and celery), fennel, leeks and garlic join the party for even more flavor. A pinch of saffron gives the soup a golden hue and subtle floral notes. For a hearty vegetarian main dish, we turn to mushrooms in lieu of ground beef.
They lend their meaty texture to this creamy ragu, which is delicious spooned over crisped store-bought gnocchi. Lasagna is delicious, but assembling it can be time consuming. This easy, yet still impressive recipe comes together in one skillet and contains all of the same components — sausage and beef tomato sauce, wavy lasagna noodles and ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.
A party-ready dish like this is often reserved for bigger holidays like Christmas and Easter, but it’s a surefire way to impress someone on Valentine’s Day. This recipe calls for homemade puff pastry, but you can certainly use your favorite store-bought brand to save time. This ooey gooey pasta dish is as equally suited for a weeknight dinner as it is for a special holiday meal.
The best part? Late-night leftovers taste even better than the original. Oftentimes the most simple recipes are the best. That’s certainly the case for this roasted chicken, which is flavored with onions, garlic, fresh thyme and fennel leaves.
The chicken roasts atop a bed of thin lemon slices, which soften and sweeten enough that you can eat them alongside the meat. The last thing you want to do on Valentine’s Day is spend all night in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. Instead of frying, this eggplant Parmesan is baked with layers of tomato sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan panko breadcrumbs.
If you’re looking for something indulgent, give Martha Stewart’s lobster pasta a try. The lobsters steam in a vodka bath and are tossed in a spicy tomato-garlic sauce before being piled over nests of linguine. All you need is a simple side salad to go along with luxurious filets.
The buttery seared steaks are cooked with mushrooms and served with a mustard and Cognac cream sauce. It’s hard to make only enough lasagna to serve two, but this recipe accomplishes just that. Instead of layering like usual, roll the bolognese, bechamel and tomato sauce into pasta pinwheels, which means even more crispy edges to enjoy.
With the amount of garlic in this recipe, we’ll admit that it’s best reserved for couples in long-term relationships. It’s made in a slow-cooker with thinly sliced lemons and thyme, which complement the garlic flavor. This dish comes together in about 30 minutes and couldn’t be easier to prepare.
The sauce is made with white wine, butter, garlic, red pepper flakes and plenty of lemon. Keep the tails on the shrimp to make each plate look picture-perfect. Two of the most decadent dishes — lobster and macaroni and cheese — are even better together.
We use Parmesan, pepper jack and sharp cheddar cheeses to create an ultra-creamy and flavorful sauce, but feel free to use your own favorite combination. Carbonara is one of those dishes that looks impressive but is deceptively simple to make. Egg yolks are what make the sauce creamy, while Parmesan cheese and guanciale add a pleasantly salty bite.
Aside from the shrimp (and maybe clam juice), you’ll most likely find all of the ingredients for this dish in your pantry. Don’t let the quick-cook time fool you., The spicy tomato sauce that coats the shrimp is packed with flavor.
A whole head of cauliflower is used in this vegetarian-friendly recipe. It’s turned into a ridiculously cream sauce, which perfectly coats the noodles. Don’t skimp on the crispy Pecorino breadcrumbs.
After all, it is a holiday. This simple chicken dinner hits all the right flavor notes. The grapes and red onion wedges are sweet enough to complement the spiciness and fattiness of the ancho chili-rubbed chicken legs.
Cooking pasta in red wine is an eye-catching way to impress a date. But it’s not just for looks. The result is long strands of noodles with a deep ruby hue and a subtly tannic flavor.
Beijing street food makes its way to your Valentine’s Day table in the form of melt-in-your-mouth lamb chops. The chops are coated in a spice rub made with cumin, coriander, chili flakes and Szechuan peppercorns and served with a drizzle of creamy soy-tahini sauce. Even though salmon has a hearty flavor of its own, it also has a remarkable ability to take on the flavor of other ingredients that you cooked with it.
These fillets are cooked with brown sugar, honey and warming spices and are finished with a sprinkle of smoked salt. There’s nothing quite like chicken Parmigiana — that is, when it’s done right. Here, pounded chicken breasts are coated in seasoned flour, eggs and panko breadcrumbs before being baked with a good amount of mozzarella and Parmesan.
Put together a quick arugula salad to serve on the side. Talk about a cozy date night. These vegetarian roll ups are made with ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan and a flavorful tomato vodka sauce.
Hearts will melt, right alongside the mixture of three cheeses. Chicken thighs are perfect for braising because it’s nearly impossible to overcook them. These are cooked with a winning combination of spices, including thyme, fennel seeds, caraway, paprika and cinnamon.
Put on a pot of rice while the chicken cooks or toast a few slices of bread to sop up all of the braising liquid. If warm and cozy is the vibe you’re going for, these short ribs are the right recipe for you. The bacon, onions, garlic and red wine will fill your kitchen with wonderful aromas while the meat simmers away.
A vibrant green sauce — made with spinach, lemon, garlic and fresh herbs of your choice — is what makes this pasta dish something special. Fresh dates add a touch of sweetness and toasted pine nuts add a buttery crunch. By using a spatchcocked chicken here, the skin will remain crisp and golden even after being smothered in the creamy tarragon sauce.
Plus, it cooks in about half the time of a whole chicken. This shortcut lasagna skips a lot of the hassle that you normally see in recipes for the Italian-American classic. The sautéed mushroom and spinach mixture is folded into ricotta cheese and layered with lasagna noodles and tomato sauce.
This is perhaps the most impressive dish you could possibly serve on Valentine’s Day. The steak fillets are poached in clarified butter and finished on the grill. The steaks are basted with a reduced red wine butter and served with homemade steak sauce.
This dish has an unlikely combination of ingredients that work together seamlessly. Sweet grapes and creamy goat cheese tame the heat of the spicy Italian sausage. Stephen Colbert’s recipe is all about the crab and less about the other “stuff.
” Serve these pan-seared beauties with tartar sauce and a simple green vegetable alongside. While they’re nothing fancy, these stuffed shells aren’t skimping on flavor. Fill them with a simple mixture of ricotta, Parmesan and basil, then nestle them into a baking dish with tomato sauce and bake until bubbly.
This is no ordinary weeknight shrimp dinner. It’s smoky and spicy, which is sure to liven up any dinner. The shrimp cook with homemade chili oil, fried garlic chips and an extra helping of dried chiles.
Sometimes comfort food is on the menu for Valentine’s Day — after all, it does occur during one of the coldest months of the year. These chicken potpies are topped with store-bought pie dough to keep things simple and satisfying. This dish is a lightened up take on an old-fashioned recipe.
It has an underlying saltiness and tanginess, but the sweetness from the figs shines through in true Valentine’s Day fashion. Ratatouille is traditionally a side dish, but it’s hearty enough to be a filling meal in its own right. Eggplant, zucchini, sweet peppers and onions stew together with tomatoes, herbs and spices.
Have some garlic bread handy for scooping up the saucy mixture. Quick-cooking pork chops are a natural fit for schnitzel. Here, they are served with creamy polenta, wilted little gem lettuce and a lemon-lime dressing that can be used for other salads the following days.
Riley Wofford is a freelance recipe developer and food stylist based in NYC. She has spent the last decade in the culinary field, transitioning from large-scale catering to editorial and commercial food media. Previously, she was a food editor at and an in-house food stylist at Marley Spoon and Dinnerly.
She loves teaching people how to cook, especially when it comes to plant-forward meals. In her free time, she enjoys spontaneous road trips, baseball games, and hanging out in the park with her dog, Millie..
