Asklemmy

Mussels. They are cheaper than clams, easy to cook, can taste just as good, and easy to make fancy.

I have a pasta maker attachment for my stand mixer, and it makes it surprisingly easy to make fresh pasta. So I'll knead together some semolina, egg, and warm water until I get a nice dough (using the stand mixer, of course), then feed it through the pasta maker attachment to make fettuccine. Boil and make a simple sauce with browned butter, pasta water, a splash of heavy cream, a spoonful of whole grain mustard, a spoonful of garlic paste, then topped with some freshly grated pecorino and a drizzle of olive oil.

Sounds fancy, and it does take a bit more time to make the pasta from scratch, but it's not hard at all and it's ludicrously delicious. Plus, 99% of people are impressed by even the idea of fresh pasta.

If I'm going for "easy" as in "fast", too, I'll use a package of storebought gnocchi and chop in a zucchini instead.

After many failed attempts I can now semi-consistently roll a proper burrito

All my savoury stuff tends to fall flat. But I am pretty good at baking. I made a bakewell tart recently and it was killer. Also bread. I make some pretty mean breads. Also, whilst I haven't done it in a while, I used to make cheese, specifically soft rind cheeses like camembert. Not east to prepare, takes about 8 weeks, but very impressive.

One more, homemade pasta. Whilst I don't really think homemade pasta tastes any better than store bought, people do find it impressive. And a pasta roller is pretty cheap.

Beef Wellington with a red wine sauce, if I have money to blow. If not, either Mongolian Beef, Gumbo, or any number of other things, depending upon the person.

Smores

Chicken Broccoli Braid from Pampered Chef. Trust me, it's worth it.

I make this copycat ravioli from a restaurant I love.

Find some butternut squash or pumpkin stuffed ravioli. Fresh sage. Aleppo chili spice, some jumbo shrimp, and garlic mince or chopped fresh (like 3-4 bulbs).

Melt butter in your pan, fry up the sage. Set aside.

Boil your water for pasta. More butter to pan, cook the shrimp. When both sides are pink it's done, don't turn them to rubber by over cooking. Set aside and rinse out your pan.

Boil the pasta and when it's half done, more butter in the pan. Medium to high heat, it's called brown butter sauce. You stir and let the butter fry until frothy. Add garlic and Aleppo at the end. I sometimes add a dab of truffle oil at the end too, depending on taste and if I have it.

Drain pasta and stir in sauce. Plate, and top with shrimp and sage. Tiny pinch of truffle salt on top if you've got it, or pink salt if not.

It's fucking delicious.

Not really to impress, but everybody likes a good paella.

Easier on a gas than with embers as I tried the latter for first time and was quite challenging.

Just ask first if everybody is ok throwing in rabbit or chicken, not everyone is fond of rabbit.

Gyoza and chicken onigiri, neatly and cutely arranged of course

Spaghetti with Salmon.

Chinese home cooking is great for this. One of my favourites:

• Cook some sort of long noodles. You can go fancy with this, but spaghetti are fine.
• for each person, put a bit of soy sauce at the bottom of something like a large cereal bowl, add warm-ish noodles.
• put a little pile of thinly sliced scallion greens and chili flakes on top.
• heat some vegetable oil to almost smoking and carefully pour it over — just enough to fry the chili and greens, and lightly coat the noodles.

Quick and simple, super tasty (and even vegan friendly if that matters to you).

Pasta with tuna sauce was my strong card for years.

Recently I learned how to make creamy rice with no need for special purpose rice, so it became the preferred option as it can can take any toppings I can find in my fridge or pantry.

Sushi/maki. Just need a good recipe for cook the rice

Put some meat on the grill. Never disappoints.

Big veggie omelet.

Cut up 2 tomatoes, 1 bell pepper, several stalks of asparagus, and half an onion into 1-inch cubes. Place in a deep frying pan, add salt & pepper, a little bit of oil, some butter, and cook them on stove top on low heat for ~5 min until all the veggies are soft and turning dark (especially asparagus.)

While the veggies are cooking, take a bowl, add 7 or 8 eggs, more salt and pepper, 1/4 cup of milk, 1 tbsp of whipped cream (optional), 1 tsp crushed garlic. Add seasoning like dried oregano and parsley, and whisk everything together.

Add the egg mix to the pan, mix well with veggies, raise the heat to high, don't mix it any more. Cook until the mix begins to rise, and the eggs on the to start bubbling. Then cover with a thin layer of shredded cheese on top.

Turn on the oven to the "broil" setting. When the cheese begins to melt, place the pan inside the oven on the middle rack. Broil for ~5 min, until the cheese starts turning light-brown. Turn the oven off, take the pan out, serve immediately.