29 Easy and Cheap(ish) Date Night Recipes That Are Fancy and Fun

Make shrimp scampi, mushroom risotto, chocolate lava cake and more restaurant-worthy dishes at home.

Date night doesn’t have to mean reservations, crowded restaurants and a huge bill. You can make a night at home feel special with some mood lighting (dimmers! candles!) and delicious food. Most of these easy recipes come together in an hour or less, and are guaranteed to impress without costing a fortune.

1. Classic Shrimp Scampi

Garlic, white wine, butter and shrimp make fast friends in Melissa Clark’s five-star megahit (the recipe has over 17,000 ratings and counting). It comes together in 15 minutes, meaning less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying each other’s company.

Recipe: Classic Shrimp Scampi

2. Marry Me Salmon

I mean … what a recipe title! Eric Kim’s 30-minute take on Marry Me Chicken is the cozy weeknight fish you cook to say “I love you.” Crisp-skinned salmon sits atop a creamy sun-dried tomato sauce with crushed red pepper and dried oregano. Serve with crusty bread or your favorite pasta to sop up that dreamy pink sauce.

Recipe: Marry Me Salmon

3. Popcorn Bucket Cookies

Channel a classic date night: sharing popcorn at an actual movie theater … into a cookie! Vaughn Vreeland’s recipe bakes all your favorite concession stand players into and atop a simple sugar dough. Feel free to play with whatever theater candy you like best.

Recipe: Popcorn Bucket Cookies

4. Steak au Poivre for Two

Make this cozy French bistro dish at home for a fraction of the price. Alexa Weibel’s recipe begins with a piece of beef that is crusted in crushed peppercorns and ends with a glossy, peppery Cognac pan sauce. Instead of two individual fillets, she calls for one large rib-eye steak which is more affordable, more flavorful and easier to cook.

Recipe: Steak au Poivre for Two

5. Chocolate Lava Cake for Two

“So scrumptious! Easy and quick to prep. Had fun making it together just before we sat down to Valentine’s dinner. 40 years married. Cooking fun meals keeps it interesting!” one reader wrote about Yossy Arefi’s 25-minute gooey chocolate cake.

Recipe: Chocolate Lava Cake for Two

6. Bricklayer-Style Nachos

There are all kinds of date nights, and one of the best is the watching-a-movie-in-sweatpants-on-the-couch date night. Enter: Pati Jinich’s incredible nachos featuring bricklayer-style beef, or puntas al albañil, a traditional Mexican taco filling made of beef, bacon and chorizo in a chunky fire-roasted salsa. Nothing says romance like fighting over the last chip.

Recipe: Bricklayer-Style Nachos

7. Delicata Squash Tart With Hot Honey and Pistachios

This stunning tart from Melissa Clark is a lot easier — and quicker — to make than you might think. The recipe mercifully calls for store-bought puff pastry, and the naturally scalloped edges of delicata squash make a particularly beautiful pattern on top. The combination of hot honey, pistachios and Parmesan feels sophisticated, flavorful and modern.

Recipe: Delicata Squash Tart With Hot Honey and Pistachios

8. Quick Lamb Ragù

Alison Roman’s quick lamb ragù comes together in 45 minutes using pantry staples and ground lamb (you could use pork or beef, too). The sauce is the warm, luxurious kind you want paired with a long, thin pasta noodle or a bowl of polenta, and a glass of red wine. Whatever you decide, don’t skip the anchovies — they add a depth of flavor you’d otherwise get from a long simmer.

Recipe: Quick Lamb Ragù

9. Butter Paneer

This 30-minute dish from Zainab Shah is perfect for when you want a sumptuous, meatless meal. Traditionally, roasted and crushed cashews are puréed with cooked onions and tomatoes, but this recipe offers a shortcut: cashew butter, which saves time and adds another layer of silky nuttiness to the dish. Serve with rice or roti.

Recipe: Butter Paneer

10. Roasted Fish and Broccolini With Tamarind and Black Pepper

Yewande Komolafe’s comforting, one-skillet fish dinner tastes like a special-occasion meal, but requires a lot less work. A quick marinade of tamarind and coconut milk infused with garlic, ginger and black pepper glazes the fish and broccolini. The recipe is highly adaptable: Use any type of fish fillet and feel free to swap the veg for cauliflower, brussels sprouts or hearty leafy greens like chard, turnip or beet greens.

Recipe: Roasted Fish and Broccolini With Tamarind and Black Pepper

11. House Dressing

Samin Nosrat’s sherry-shallot vinaigrette, inspired by the dressing used on Via Carota’s insalata verde, is good on everything. Keep some stocked in the fridge at all times, and you can make any salad or vegetable instantly feel date-night fancy. It’s also great over roast chicken. (For more salad dressing wisdom from Samin, watch her Cooking 101 video!)

Recipe: House Dressing

12. Coconut Almond Macaroons

Samantha Seneviratne makes the fluffiest, most tender macaroons, thanks to the addition of whipped egg whites and condensed milk. Reminiscent of Almond Joy candy bars, the naturally gluten-free cookies are half-dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with finely chopped roasted almonds. This recipe comes together in about an hour, but the treats need to sit at room temperature for about two hours before serving.

Recipe: Coconut Almond Macaroons

13. Mushroom Risotto With Peas

Risotto feels like one of those fancy dishes you eat only when dining out, but it doesn’t have to be! “I recently ate a good one at a high-end restaurant and wanted to see if I could make it. Oh yes, yes I can, and mine was even better than the restaurant’s,” one reader wrote about Martha Rose Shulman’s recipe. This is a satisfying, elegant meal that will have you and your date scooping up seconds.

Recipe: Mushroom Risotto With Peas

14. Dirty Martini

Cold, salty and effortlessly classy, a dirty martini is the perfect date night drink. Instead of using vodka or gin, Rebekah Peppler calls for a 50-50 mix of the two (as well as some vermouth and brine) for a fresher, crisper taste. Keep the drink classic with olive brine, or get creative with cornichon, pickled jalapeño, pickled tomato or preserved lemon.

Recipe: Dirty Martini

15. Ricotta Toast With Roasted Grapes

Fun, inventive appetizers are part of what make dining out so exciting, but you can capture that same chef energy at home. This recipe from Raquel Villanueva Dang, the chef at Baby’s Kusina and Market in Philadelphia, is a great place to start. Grapes roasted with fresh thyme and salt are plated over whipped ricotta that’s drizzled with a salty-sweet glaze of balsamic vinegar, honey and fish sauce. Toast some sourdough bread and dig in.

Recipe: Ricotta Toast With Roasted Grapes

16. Chickpeas al Limone With Burrata

Hetty Lui McKinnon turns a humble can of chickpeas into a memorable, osteria-worthy dish. Canned chickpeas and their brine, or aquafaba, are cooked with olive oil, garlic and lemon zest until it thickens. They’re then added to a combination of lemon juice and Parmesan, which emulsifies into a silky sauce. Top with a beautiful ball of burrata and eat with crusty bread.

Recipe: Chickpeas al Limone With Burrata

17. Vanilla Crème Brûlée

With just five simple ingredients you probably already have on hand — cream, vanilla, salt, eggs and sugar — you can make your own silky custard with a crackly sugar top. While most recipes call for a propane torch, Mark Bittman’s version offers an easier solution: your oven’s broiler. If you really like your date, let them crack into it first.

Recipe: Vanilla Crème Brûlée

18. Somen Noodle Soup With Mushrooms

When you want something warming and delicious, look no further than this mushroom soup from Sue Li. The broth is full of deep umami flavor, thanks to four powerful ingredients: soy sauce, sesame oil, scallions and shiitakes. Poached eggs, which always feel fancy but are easier than you think, add a lovely richness.

Recipe: Somen Noodle Soup With Mushrooms

19. Scallops With Bread-Crumb Salsa Verde

If you’re celebrating something special, like a birthday or anniversary, consider splurging on a half-pound of scallops for Christian Reynoso’s five-star recipe, which pairs them with a crunchy, vibrant and herby bread-crumb salsa. The dish comes together in 30 minutes and feels weeknight easy, but looks and tastes fancy.

Recipe: Scallops With Bread-Crumb Salsa Verde

20. Chicken Piccata

Ali Slagle’s 25-minute take on the Italian American classic uses lemon two ways: slices that are caramelized with the chicken, and a good squeeze of juice at the end for a zap of brightness. The buttery pan sauce with shallots, capers and the star, citrus, is neither too rich, nor too puckery. Serve with pasta or rice and something green, like kale salad or roasted broccoli.

Recipe: Chicken Piccata

21. Maple-Soy Pork Chops With Shichimi Togarashi

Eric Kim says that shichimi togarashi — a Japanese seven-spice blend featuring ground red chiles, roasted orange peel, black and white sesame seeds, sansho pepper, seaweed and often ginger — makes everything taste better. This 25-minute recipe proves that. Lime juice and a touch of soy sauce accentuate the citrusy, savory spice that gets reduced into a maple-syrup pan sauce for pork chops.

Recipe: Maple-Soy Pork Chops With Shichimi Togarashi

22. Dark Chocolate Pudding

If a classic chocolate pudding and a velvety pot de crème had a baby, it would be this rich, creamy dessert from Melissa Clark. It comes together in 20 minutes (plus at least four hours’ chilling) and achieves a smooth, satiny texture by blending, instead of straining, so it’s as unfussy as can be. Serve it with whipped cream or crème fraîche and a little bit of flaky sea salt.

Recipe: Dark Chocolate Pudding

23. One-Pot Tortellini With Prosciutto and Peas

“My wife loved it, and it strikes me as the perfect single guy meal to make for a date as it’s hard to mess up, but seems more complex than it is,” one reader wrote about Ali Slagle’s 25-minute one-pot pasta. Crisp prosciutto, sweet peas and cheese tortellini are bathed in a silky lemon cream sauce.

Recipe: One-Pot Tortellini With Prosciutto and Peas

24. Nonalcoholic Dirty Lemon Tonic

You can still have a fun and flirty beverage, even if you’re not drinking alcohol. Take Rebekah Peppler’s NA dirty lemon tonic, which leans salty-sour thanks to preserved lemon muddled with fresh lemon and sugar. (If you’d like to make this nonalcoholic drink alcoholic, add a splash of vodka, gin or even limoncello.)

Recipe: Nonalcoholic Dirty Lemon Tonic

25. Fondant Potatoes

Craving something a bit more elegant than baked potatoes? Try Lidey Heuck’s creamy, melt-in-your mouth potatoes. (Fondant is French for melting.) Seared in a hot pan, basted and then baked, Yukon Gold potatoes become creamy and fall-apart tender. They are precisely the showstopping side your dinner plate needs.

Recipe: Fondant Potatoes

26. Pumpkin Dumplings With Brown Butter and Parmesan

Tossed in thyme-infused brown butter, this cozy dish is the perfect balance of ease and elegance — ideal for a date night in. Carolina Gelen’s free-form dumplings call for just a handful of ingredients: a can of pumpkin purée, eggs, flour, Parmesan and grated nutmeg. There’s no kneading or resting required. You can go from cooking to eating to curling up on the couch together in under an hour.

Recipe: Pumpkin Dumplings With Brown Butter and Parmesan

27. Strawberry Spoon Cake

This tender cake from Jerrelle Guy is worth adding to your date-night rotation. The batter comes together with minimal effort — basic pantry ingredients and a handful of frozen or fresh berries — making it a winning year-round dessert. The final result is so jammy and gooey it’s best to serve the whole thing with a spoon. It’s also best to serve with ice cream. But you probably knew that already.

Recipe: Strawberry Spoon Cake

28. Lemon Spaghetti With Roasted Artichokes

Naz Deravian’s 40-minute pasta can turn an ordinary night into something memorable. The addition of roasted artichoke hearts adds texture and pairs wonderfully with a zippy, silky five-ingredient sauce made of lemon zest, lemon juice, Parmesan, butter and basil. Canned or frozen artichokes are less work than whole fresh ones, and they roast beautifully.

Recipe: Lemon Spaghetti With Roasted Artichokes

29. Mussels With White Beans, Garlic and Rosemary

In this 20-minute recipe, Melissa Clark offers another way to savor that garlicky broth left at the bottom of the bowl: canned white beans. First, the beans are braised in olive oil, garlic, rosemary and crushed red pepper until tender. Mussels are then added to the pot, releasing their briny liquid, which the beans soak up. Lemon zest and herbs are thrown in at the end for brightness. Serve with toasted bread.

Recipe: Mussels With White Beans, Garlic and Rosemary

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