14 Tasty Valentines Recipes For Couples Who Can't Even Cook

Valentine's Day originated from a fifth-century holiday celebrating the feast of St. Valentine, but over the centuries February 14 became more focused on romance than the third-century saint. Still, it's one of the busiest nights of the year for restaurants. To help you avoid the crowds, we compiled 14 tasty recipes you and your significant other can cook from the comfort of home -- even if the two of you are clueless in the kitchen. And don't forget a great and inexpensive wine.

Seafood dishes tend to scare away novice cooks. But one of the great things about cooking with seafood is that the strong flavors tend to do most of the work for you, like this easy Allrecipes shrimp dish that calls for a few basic ingredients -- garlic, salt, butter -- and 15 minutes in the oven.

This butternut squash ravioli recipe from Country Living will leave your significant other impressed -- both for how great it tastes and how simple it is to cook. Utilizing the rich flavors of butternut squash as an alternative to meat in the ravioli, this dish can also be modified for vegetarians by scrapping the chicken and adding potatoes or another vegetable.

The best recipes are often the simplest, like this quick and easy pan-seared sirloin steak recipe from the Our Life Tastes Good blog that's paired with asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes. Try using a cast-iron skillet for the best sear.

Can you boil water and fry up some garlic and bacon? If so, cooking this spaghetti carbonara recipe from the Amateur Gourmet blog will be a cinch. This dish requires little work but yields a big payoff, and it goes perfectly with a nice bottle of white wine – which is used in the recipe anyway.

Roast chicken is a classic dish that requires just a few basic ingredients. It takes just more than an hour to cook, but most of that work is hands off, allowing you and your special someone to cook up some sides to pair with the chicken – potatoes, asparagus, salad, or soup. And, of course, a bottle of white wine.

Filet mignon is typically the most prized cut of meat at upscale restaurants, often costing more than $40 a plate. But at home it'll cost less than half that. Cooking the perfect filet mignon is easy with this recipe from No Recipe Required -- just give it a quick sear in the pan and let your oven do the rest. Try pairing with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus.

Utilizing a simple combination of herbs, this pork roast recipe makes it easy for novice cooks to draw some big flavor out of a classic dish. Consider pairing with wine that's high in acidity -- Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc -- and covering the meat while in the oven to preserve the juices.

This light and simple recipe from the Ambitious Kitchen blog is bound to impress. With its mix of maple syrup and cayenne powder, it's both sweet and spicy. It's also easy: Mix the ingredients for the glaze in a bowl, pour over the fish, and bake. The recipe suggests pairing with sweet potato fries and veggies.

The best thing about risotto -- essentially just Arborio rice grains cooked in broth, stirred until creamy -- is its versatility. This particular recipe from Allrecipes calls for adding seafood, but you could just as easily substitute another meat or vegetable without deviating too much from the recipe.

Don't be scared off by this elegant seafood recipe, because preparing mussels is simple: Just add all of the ingredients to a stock pot, cover, and wait. It's a cheap dish that seems more complicated than it is, and, considering it's Valentine's Day, it's worth noting that mussels have been shown to have aphrodisiac properties.

If your February turns out to be a chilly one, consider staying in with your honey to cook up a tasty soup or stew from the comfort of home. Whether it's a hearty beef stew or a rich roasted red pepper soup, the slow-cooking nature of these recipes makes them hard to screw up.

Seared scallops make for a light and delicious dish that's easy to cook. Scallops, considered a natural aphrodisiac by some, only require a few ingredients to bring out their delicious flavor -- butter, garlic, lemon. This garlicky scallops recipe can also work as an appetizer, considering it takes just 20 minutes to cook.

Pizza is arguably one of the most playful types of food to make: You get to toss the dough, add whatever ingredients you want, and, of course, eat delicious pizza when it's all said and done. This easy recipe from the Pass the Sushi blog is perfect for Valentine's Day because you and your S.O. can customize it to perfection and cook in just about 30 minutes.

Pasta dishes are a favorite among novice cooks because of their simplicity and incredible flavors. This particular recipe from the Baking Mischief blog is light and tasty, and, most importantly for a disaster-free Valentine's Day, it's easy: Boil some noodles, roast some cherry tomatoes in the oven, and cook the chicken with a few staple ingredients.