The Serious Eats Dream Valentine’s Dinners at Home

I was looking over this list, and it’s a pretty tempting roster of meals.  Delicious homemade pasta, beautiful meats and more.  It’s a pretty seductive gathering of dishes.

I’m staunchly against dining out on Valentine’s Day.  The surest way to ensure that a dinner out is not romantic at all is to dine with everyone else one Earth.  Not only will you almost certainly not get perfect service, you’re apt to face a wait no matter how clever you were to reserve a table.  And queuing is the least sexy activity of all.  I know people out there have experienced lovely VD’s out, but sitting in a crowded restaurant sets me on edge.  I prefer languid dining experiences where I feel unhurried and free to make awful noises and faces as I devour my plate.  And I hate the whole focus on romance on Valentine’s Day.  If I’m dining out, I’m romancing my food.  Forget my lover–there’s time for him later.

Anyway, I’d have to say that if I got the opportunity to dream wildly for a Valentine’s Day dinner, it would most certainly be at home.  While I’m tempted to blurt that I’d want so, so much steak and scallops–and I do want those–my dream dinner would probably be little sampling dishes of just about everything.  A perfect bite of fried ravioli with handmade red sauce, a perfectly seared scallop, a little chicken pot hand pie, a piece of pork with mango salsa, a little frothy shot of matcha, a tiny bite of flourless chocolate cake.  Not terribly practical, but it’s a dream, right?  (Maybe it could be like a very un-adventurous elBulli experience.  I love the creativity of modern cuisine, but my palette is very… particular.)

What’s your dream Valentine’s dinner at home?