Our first Valentine's Day in this apartment, we tried to go out. We'd booked a table at a place across the city, waited forty minutes past our reservation in a crowded entryway, paid far too much for a prix fixe, and then walked to the train in sleet. Sam said, around block three, "We could have just made pasta." He was right. Every year since, we've stayed home on purpose, and it's become one of my favorite nights of the winter.
Tomorrow is the 14th, it's supposed to be in the teens overnight, and the baseboard heaters are already clicking away. So here's our plan for this year, start to finish, for under thirty dollars.
The budget
We set a $30 ceiling a couple of years ago, half as a joke, and it stuck. It forces us to pick the things that actually feel special instead of buying a little of everything. This is what this year's list looks like, from our regular grocery store:
| Item | Approx. cost |
|---|---|
| Fresh pasta (one package, serves two) | $5.50 |
| Small wedge of parmesan | $4.50 |
| Butter, lemon, garlic (have most already) | $2.00 |
| Bag of spinach for a quick side salad | $3.00 |
| Bar of good dark chocolate | $4.00 |
| Pint of strawberries | $3.50 |
| Bunch of grocery-store tulips | $6.00 |
| Total | $28.50 |
We skip wine this year and use a bottle of sparkling water with a strip of lemon peel in fancy glasses. It feels festive and nobody has a headache on Sunday.
Dinner: lemon butter pasta
This is the dish we've made every Valentine's since the sleet incident. It takes fifteen minutes and tastes like you tried harder.
Ingredients (for two)
- 1 package fresh fettuccine or tagliatelle (about 9 oz)
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- About 1/2 cup finely grated parmesan, plus more for the table
- Salt and lots of black pepper
Steps
- Bring a big pot of well-salted water to a boil.
- In a wide pan, melt the butter over low heat and add the garlic. Let it sizzle gently for two minutes without browning.
- Cook the pasta for a minute less than the package says. Before draining, scoop out a mug of pasta water.
- Move the pasta straight into the butter pan with a splash of pasta water. Add the lemon zest and toss.
- Off the heat, add the parmesan a handful at a time, tossing and adding pasta water until it's glossy and saucy.
- Squeeze in lemon juice to taste, crack in plenty of pepper, and eat right away.
Notes
- Dried pasta works fine. Use a little more pasta water.
- Take the pan off the heat before the cheese goes in, or it clumps.
- The spinach becomes a two-minute salad with olive oil, a pinch of salt, and the leftover half of the lemon.
Making the apartment feel like an occasion
The food is half of it. The other half is making 640 square feet feel different from a regular Saturday, when my laptop is usually still open on the table at 6 p.m.
- Clear the table completely. The laptop, the mail, the cat brush. All of it goes in a basket in the bedroom for one night.
- Lights low, lamps only. We turn off the overhead and light the one big candle we own, safely on the counter away from Olive's tail.
- Tulips in a jar. They open over the following week, so the night lasts a bit longer.
- Phones in the bedroom. This is the one that makes the biggest difference and the one we're worst at.
After dinner
We melt half the chocolate in a mug in the microwave, in short bursts, and dip strawberries at the coffee table. Then we pick a movie neither of us has seen. The rule is it can't be something we'd normally fall asleep to on a Tuesday. Last year it was an old black-and-white comedy Sam had never heard of, and he laughed so hard Olive left the room.
The second half of the chocolate bar goes in the cupboard for Sunday. That might be my favorite part, honestly: knowing there's a little of the night left over for the next day, while it's still freezing outside and neither of us has anywhere to be.
