Cooking for two
Easy dinner ideas for two
Comfort food is usually written for a crowd, which is how you end up eating the same casserole four nights running. Every recipe here has a serving picker — set it to 2 and the amounts, the pan and the timings come with you. These are the ones we cook most often for two.
How to cook these for two
- Open any recipe and tap 2 in the servings row — the ingredients and every step rewrite themselves, including pan sizes for cakes and tarts.
- Use a smaller pan than the recipe photo suggests. A 10-inch skillet halved into an 8-inch keeps sauces from reducing to nothing.
- Cooking times barely change when you halve a recipe — heat and temperature stay the same, so go by the look and feel described in each step.
- Buying for two? Soups and braises are the exception worth cooking at 4 servings: the second night tastes better than the first.
Twenty minutes, start to plate
One pan, two bowls, almost nothing to wash up.
Pasta & Risotto
Brown Butter Tomato Pasta
Blistered cherry tomatoes collapse into nutty brown butter and cling to every strand.
20 min · 2 servings
Seafood
Garlic Butter Shrimp Scampi
Shrimp cooked two minutes a side, then a garlic butter pan sauce loosened with pasta water.
20 min · 4 servings
30-Minute Dinners
Creamy Tomato Tortellini
Twenty minutes, one pan, and the tortellini cook right in the tomato cream.
20 min · 4 servings
30-Minute Dinners
Skillet Gnocchi with Spinach and Lemon
Crisped straight from the package — no boiling, no colander, one pan.
20 min · 4 servings
Seafood
Crisp Skin Salmon with Shaved Fennel
Skin like glass, centre barely set, and a cold fennel salad cutting straight through it.
18 min · 2 servings
Worth taking your time over
For the nights when cooking together is the point.
Pasta & Risotto
Saffron Lemon Risotto with Basil Oil
A slow-stirred, unapologetically buttery risotto that tastes like late sun on a stone terrace.
35 min · 4 servings
Chicken & Poultry
Crispy Parmesan Chicken Cutlets
Pounded thin, breaded with Parmesan in the crumbs, and shallow-fried four minutes total.
25 min · 4 servings
Beef & Pork
Smothered Pork Chops with Onion Gravy
Deeply browned chops finished in a silky onion gravy built in the same pan.
40 min · 4 servings
Soups & Stews
Tuscan White Bean and Kale Soup
A brothy, garlicky bowl that thickens itself when you mash a ladle of the beans.
35 min · 4 servings
Small sides and something sweet
Scale these to 2 as well — a whole cake for two people is a lot of cake.
Vegetables
Charred Broccolini with Anchovy Crumbs
Deeply blistered stems under salty, crunchy breadcrumbs — the side dish people fight over.
15 min · 4 servings
Vegetables
Honey Garlic Roasted Carrots
Roasted hot until the edges caramelize, then tossed in honey butter that turns to glaze in the hot pan.
35 min · 4 servings
Side Dishes
Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes
Warm cream, nutty butter, and a ricer instead of a masher.
35 min · 6 servings
Baking
Olive Oil Almond Cake
One bowl, one whisk, a crackled sugar top and a crumb that stays damp for days.
1 hr · 8 slices
Keep browsing
Easy comfort food recipes
The cozy soups, cheesy skillets and slow Sunday dinners, sorted by time.
Easy dinner recipes
Everything we cook on an ordinary weeknight, from 15 minutes to a slow braise.
30-minute meals
Dinners on the table in half an hour, mostly in one pan.
Cozy dinner ideas
Not sure what to make? Pick a mood and we'll point you at the recipe.
Fall comfort food recipes
Sweater-weather cooking: braises, bakes and anything that warms the kitchen.