The Best Recipes To Cook With Your Partner For A Fun Night In
Going out for date night is always a fun treat. But one plan that should most definitely be on your schedule is staying in to cook up a special dinner with your special someone. It's a super sweet activity that you can start early in the week by choosing your menu and shopping for ingredients together. You'll be saving in the bank, spending time with your favorite human, and doing it all in your cozies (or gussied up). Honestly, what's better than that?
When your special evening rolls around, you can go all out with an elaborate setup for your date night at home. Perhaps a romantic carpet picnic, complete with candles, plenty of merlot, and the record player rolling with tunes that'll complement your tasty homemade Neapolitan pizza. Or, you want to assemble a sweet bistro table on your balcony with white fairy lights, a chilled bottle of rosé, a checkered tablecloth, and a roaring fire pit to set the mood for a scrumptious pasta dish.
Whatever experience you choose is sure to be special from beginning to end. To help make the night especially delicious as well, we've rounded up some entrees to consider cooking with your partner for the perfect date night.
Make this Neapolitan pizza on date night
Our Neapolitan pizza recipe is a perfect match for a date night spent cooking at home with your love bug. It's casual enough for a carpet picnic, a ton of fun to make, and boasts crispy, cheesy, pure deliciousness. Plus, you can whip this recipe up in just 16 minutes! What more could a romantic date night need (besides a good movie, of course)?
Gather up your flour, yeast, salt, water, tomato sauce, olive oil, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, and oregano to get started. Soon enough, you'll feel as though you and your partner teleported to Italy for a romantic cooking class. Be sure to uncork some of your favorite wine while preparing this tasty meal.
This fettuccini Alfredo comes together in just eight minutes
If you love fettuccini Alfredo, you absolutely must try our recipe as soon as possible, no questions asked. It's creamy, totally delicious, and will definitely be one of your favorite dishes to prepare with your person time and time again. You can have this meal on your table in just eight minutes (no, we're not joking). That will give you some extra time to take a romantic stroll after you're done eating.
For this dish, you will require fettuccine pasta, heavy cream, 1 egg yolk, salted butter, nutmeg, grated Parmesan cheese, and pepper. Put on some matching aprons, then show off your cooking skills with a few creative Instagram snaps that'll make everyone so envious of your fancy-looking date night.
Bobby Flay's shrimp and grits is a real Southern charmer
This recipe for Bobby Flay's shrimp and grits is a real Southern charmer. All you will need in order to prepare this dish is shrimp, olive oil, butter, Parmesan cheese, water, minced onion, stone-ground cornmeal, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. The flavors are incredibly delicious, of course, and the entree will look super impressive when plated. Even before you dig into this meal, you and your partner will feel like pro chefs.
If you're game for dessert, keep the cuisine on theme by preparing a treat that's a staple in the south: hummingbird cake. It's like a variation on carrot cake, only this time the carrots are replaced with sweeter ingredients like bananas, pineapple, all topped with a sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting.
You'll be crushing on this pad Thai recipe
If you love Thai food and have never ventured into your kitchen to make it, then this pad Thai recipe is the perfect place to start. Once you make it, chances are pretty good that you'll be whipping it up for dinner again and again. Even better, it will take you only 25 minutes to assemble, leaving plenty of time to watch a movie.
To make this pad Thai, you will need Thai style rice noodles, tamarind puree (or 1 tablespoon of ketchup plus 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar), soy sauce, fish sauce, brown sugar, garlic, onion, ginger, two eggs, firm tofu, prawns, chopped peanuts, bean sprouts, chopped scallions, and one lime. This colorful meal will be a Pinterest-worthy addition to your date night table.
See if TikTok's viral feta pasta recipe lives up to the hype on date night
This feta pasta recipe has been a total sensation on TikTok — and for good reason. The melted and baked feta cheese is truly unbeatable when it comes to great flavor and irresistible texture. Plus this dish will be so much fun to prepare together for date night at home. Of course, you'll have to document the whole process while you're making it for dinner so you can get in on the hype and create your own TikTok video.
You will need the following items for this meal: dry pasta, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, dried oregano, salt, black pepper, chiffonaded basil, garlic, a shallot, and extra-virgin olive oil. Trust us when we say this could be the most fun 15 minutes you've had in your kitchen preparing a meal in quite some time. Oh, and it tastes great, too.
These are the best pierogies you've tasted for a darn good reason
You may think you should avoid this recipe because it's a lot of work and quite time-consuming. Aren't pierogies the domain of masterful grandmothers who have spent decades perfecting their dumpling-making art in the kitchen? But guess again, because you can whip these yummy pierogies up in just 25 minutes. These are quite possibly the best pierogis you've ever tasted and for a darn good reason. If you want to find out why, well, you'll just have to try them for yourself.
The ingredients you will need to pull together are all-purpose flour, eggs, water, sea salt, russet potatoes, farmer cheese (basically a firmer version of ricotta), extra virgin olive oil, ground black pepper, yellow onion, and unsalted butter. Don't forget sour cream to top off each plate.
Spice up date night with delicious chicken enchiladas
What better way to spice up date night than with delicious chicken enchiladas? This recipe can be prepared in 35 minutes and is sure to be a date night success, especially if you're a fan of a bit of spice in your mealtime.
Ingredients you will need include flour tortillas, shredded rotisserie chicken, flour, chili powder, oil, ground cumin, garlic powder, salt, tomato paste, vegetable broth, shredded rotisserie chicken, red onion, and chopped cilantro. Once you've assembled the sauce and enchiladas, it's all smooth sailing from there. While the enchiladas are cooking, why don't you both kick back with a couple of glasses of red sangria and pat yourselves on the back for a job well done?
A cozy date night in calls for whipping up homemade ramen
There's nothing quite like snuggling up with your significant other to enjoy a warm bowl of ramen on a cozy night in. If you and your partner can't seem to get enough of this Japanese staple, skip the takeout or the college-era instant ramen. Instead, why not opt for some fun in the kitchen? A truly special date night calls for whipping up homemade ramen. This recipe is guaranteed to be the absolute best you'll ever make — and don't let the hefty ingredients list steer you away from it. It'll be fun tackling the recipe with the person you love most, not to mention a great opportunity to make some new memories as you both flex your kitchen muscles.
For our ramen recipe, you'll need chicken broth, fresh ramen noodles, garlic, ginger, a red onion, Thai chili, fish sauce, pure sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, fried chili in oil, limes, a small jalapeño, 2 soft boiled eggs, 2 limes, a small head of Napa cabbage, bean sprouts, cilantro, crushed peanuts, mint, and scallions. Recipe developer Tricia Wheeler recommends shopping an Asian or international store for the recipe staples.
Once you have your ingredients rounded up, you'll be well on your way to making the tastiest date night meal yet. Be sure to grab the extra-big bowls for a good helping of this delicious ramen.