A layered bake of potatoes, risotto rice, cheese and mussels that will leave your kitchen smelling like the sea

Leafing through Luigi Sada’s book of La Cucina Pugliese , I couldn’t find riso, patate e cozze (rice, potatoes and mussels). I was looking for rice dishes in primi piatti , lost in the countless, great-sounding recipes for mussels and other shellfish from the heel of Italy – in short, the wrong chapter. This layered bake of rice, sliced potatoes, tomatoes, cheese and mussels is the first recipe in the chapter titled Les Soupes (oddly, in French). Sada crowns riso, patate e cozze , also known as tiella , “ the queen of minestre ”, and notes that it is made differently from town to town, and that this “mothership recipe” is tiella barese from Puglia’s capital, Bari. It includes courgettes and uses pecorino. Meanwhile, other recipes from Bari remind us that there is no such thing as a definitive version, each suggesting wildly different proportions and all sorts of rice, or not to include courgettes and to use parmesan instead.

What everyone seems to agree on, though, is that a rest brings out the best in tiella – they all advise waiting before eating – as well as the importance of opening the mussels by hand. Several people reassured me that this is just like opening oysters, which, after being defeated by shell-clenched oysters and shamed by a professional shucker, I didn’t find reassuring at all. However, it turns out that if you insert the point of a knife near the hinge, then run the blade between the two shells, mussels, while a faff, are much easier to lever open than oysters. Yet they’re no less dramatic when you pull apart the shells apart and see the soft, secret flesh inside.

Make an impression with burrata and blood orange salad, baked trout with tahini and peppers, and tinned peach tarte tatin topped with ice-cream to finish

What makes a good Valentine’s meal? Something to share, maybe, Lady and the Tramp-style? Or food to eat by hand, signalling informality and ease? For some, it’s a full-on steak and champagne feast, eaten under candlelight, while for others a baked potato eaten on the sofa while wearing PJs does the trick. All good meals are a relationship match of sorts. Some pairings are clearly going to work from the start, while others take a bit longer to persuade, not least because they seem an odd fit: trout and tahini, say, are hardly the most obvious couple but, once tried, they make so much sense. It’s tempting to force the analogies when it comes to food and love, so let’s leave the ingredients to do what they do best.

Persian-style braised tofu with sour yoghurt and spinach, a pleasingly simple cabbage and poppy seed pasta, and steamed fish with cumin and tomato oil

The perennial question for weeknight meals is, what are the rules? For me, for now, and whenever I can, it’s essentially a 30-minute window, give or take, from when I start chopping to dishing up, and pretty much serve straight from the pan, too. It’s very often pasta for comfort, or steamed fish for speed. Of course, swaps are made and shortcuts taken, but these are my speedy solutions for when it’s 8pm and I’m starving.

A three-course showpiece to prep in advance, so you can spend more time with your better half: burnt aubergine with feta and harissa oil, prawns in vanilla and rum butter, and a chocolatey coffee mousse to finish

This time last year, many of us were looking forward to a special, one-to-one supper with a loved one. The partner we live with, for example, but perhaps forget to go on dates with; a special meal, quality time, stories saved up to be shared. The past year has, of course, brought a whole new meaning to the idea of “quality time”, and I’m not sure anyone has any great stories they’ve saved for this Valentine’s dinner. Be kind and cut yourself some slack: forget about the top new chat and focus instead on a top new meal. Pat yourself on the back for making it this far, and raise a large glass of something you adore.