8 Italian Date Night Dinners to Make at Home
If you’re like me, date night at home usually starts with big plans and ends with scrolling for something to order.
These Italian date night dinners are the kind of plates you’d happily order at a little trattoria, made at home for just the two of you.
Some are cozy pasta nights, and the rest are chicken or shrimp finished with lemon, butter, or melted mozzarella.
Open a bottle of dry white you’d actually drink, since a couple of these use a splash in the sauce.
1. Lemon Herb Skillet Chicken
Golden seared chicken finished in the same pan with lemon, garlic, butter, and fresh herbs.
The pan sauce is built from the browned bits the chicken leaves behind, so nothing needs a second pan.
Leave the chicken alone while it sears so it releases from the pan on its own.
Serve it with crusty bread or a little orzo to catch the sauce.
2. Caprese Chicken
Seared chicken topped with melted mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, and a drizzle of balsamic glaze.
It’s a caprese salad turned into a warm dinner.
Slice a ball of fresh mozzarella and pat the slices dry so they melt into a layer instead of weeping into the pan.
The glaze goes on at the very end, since it scorches in a hot pan.
3. Skillet Lasagna
All the parts of a lasagna cooked in one skillet on the stove instead of layered and baked for an hour.
Broken noodles simmer right in the meat sauce, then ricotta and mozzarella melt on top under the lid.
Stir every few minutes and push the noodles back under the sauce, or the pieces poking out stay hard.
For two, half a jar of marinara and about five noodles is enough.
4. Chicken Piccata
Slice or pound the chicken thin first, since that’s what lets it cook through in a few minutes per side.
The cutlets go into a bright, buttery sauce of lemon, capers, and white wine.
The capers are what make it taste like piccata, so don’t skip them.
Serve it over angel hair or next to a green salad.
5. Shrimp Scampi
Shrimp cooked in garlic, butter, white wine, and lemon, then tossed with linguine.
The shrimp only need two or three minutes, so start the pasta first and cook them while it boils.
Pull them off the heat as soon as they turn pink and curl, since they toughen fast.
A pinch of red pepper flakes and a handful of parsley finish it.
6. Penne alla Vodka
Penne in a creamy tomato sauce with a splash of vodka, which sharpens the tomato and doesn’t taste boozy once it simmers.
The sauce cooks in one pan while the pasta boils.
Cook the tomato paste in the pan until it darkens a shade, which is where the deep color comes from.
Save a little pasta water to loosen the sauce right before serving.
7. Cacio e Pepe
Spaghetti, Pecorino Romano, and a lot of black pepper, and that’s the whole recipe.
The sauce is just cheese melted into starchy pasta water, which makes it fast but a little fussy.
Grate the pecorino as finely as you can and add it off the heat, or it clumps instead of turning creamy.
At about 15 minutes, it’s one of the quickest dinners on this list.
8. Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter
Soft potato gnocchi tossed in butter cooked until it smells nutty, with crisp fried sage leaves.
Store-bought gnocchi works here and turns it into a 15-minute dinner.
Watch the butter closely, since it goes from brown to burnt in under a minute.
A little grated Parmesan on top is all it needs.
Notes on Italian Date Night Dinners
Plan on 3 to 4 oz of dry pasta per person for a dinner portion, and weigh it rather than guessing.
Save a mug of pasta water before draining, since the scampi, the vodka sauce, and the cacio e pepe all use it to bring the sauce together.
Buy chicken cutlets already sliced thin, or halve two breasts horizontally, for the piccata and the caprese chicken.
Use a dry white wine you’d drink, like Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc, in the wine-based sauces.
Grate Pecorino and Parmesan from a block, since pre-grated cheese has anti-caking powder that keeps it from melting smoothly.
A 12-inch skillet and one pot for pasta cover every recipe here.