Romantic Meal for Two

Asked by little.l1989. Answered on 27th June 2011

Full question

My boyfriend is coming back home from Doha for 2 weeks next month and I would like to cook a romantic 3 course meal for him, to show him how much I love him and how much he means to me. I'm a little stumped for ideas so any suggestions would be great. He loves squid, olives and mustard. Obviously having all 3 in one dish would not be nice at all, but recipes that involve any of these would be great. Many thanks!

Our answer

Nigella included the Date Steak recipe in Kitchen (p322) as a perfect recipe for a dinner a deux. It is fairly quick to cook and the sauce can be made the day before. The sauce includes a tablespoon of Dijon mustard which should give a fair amount of piquancy, though you can add a touch more if you like or serve extra mustard alongside the steak when you serve it.

For the squid we suggest that you use this in a first course and the Quick Calamari with Garlic Mayonnaise from Nigella Express (p16) would be a good option, and also would fit well with the steak making up the main course. The recipe serves 4 as a first course, so we suggest that you make a half quantity of the recipe for two people. With the olives it may be best to offer these as something for your boyfriend to nibble on while you cook dinner, but if you would like to flavour them a little more then you could look at the Martini Olives in Nigella Express (p319) or the Pickled Olives from Christmas (p 229), or buy some ready marinated olives from a delicatessen or the supermarket.

For dessert, Nigella has a recipe for Quivering With Passion Jellies (gelatins) in Feast (p148) as the end of a seductive meal for two. Otherwise chocolate is most associated with romantic meals and we would suggest considering Chocohotopots in Feast (p256), Glitzy Chocolate Puddings, Budino di Cioccolato or Nutella Pancakes from Nigella Express (p221, p311 and p374 respectively) or the Chocolate Pots from Nigella Bites (186).