'SOMETIMES YOU NEED to prepare a meal that will make someone fall in love with you," Susie Bright writes at the end of her latest book of essays, Mommy's Little Girl: On Sex, Motherhood, Porn, and Cherry Pie. Isn't that always the point? Everyone wants to be loved – by children, by friends and lovers and roommates and dogs. Cooking is just a shortcut. Because direct as it might be to simply ask all your nearest and dearest to express their devotion, in word and song, every day, it's a little more subtle to slip into the kitchen with a chicken and a bottle of wine and show them not only how much you love them but also how much fun can be had by their being in love with you too.

When it comes to planning the menu, a tiny bit of surprise is always nice, just to show you've been paying attention. Has your beloved or best friend expressed, just in passing, an abiding belief that heaven would be a place where there are finally enough shrimp dumplings? Is he or she in love with profiteroles, lemon curd, roast chicken? These days, under the steak tartare sway of my Scorpio sign, I'm on the side of the primal. After all, what is the carnal but the desire for flesh and blood and bone? If you'd rather have fish, then make it a whole one, a beautiful branzino or rockfish slashed here and there and rubbed with olive oil and a little crushed fresh oregano, thrown into a hot oven, showered with lemon juice, and brought to the table in all its head-to-tail glory. Be brave. Fillets are too twee to get you what you want.

For dessert, I would go back and listen to what Bright says about her Eternal Cherry Devotion Pie, the recipe for which is easily worth the price of the book. "Don't make this pie if you're just toying with someone – you'll be sorry. Don't make this pie for your lover if you don't want him or her by your side forever, then moaning at your grave when you're gone. This is serious stuff." She goes on to warn that the desired effect can be achieved only by using fresh cherries, which have about a five-minute summer season in the Bay Area. Of course, you could seize the day and make it right now anyway using frozen or canned-in-juice Bing cherries, or file the recipe away for a summer fling. In that case, make a black tart. Black tart came from performing recipe alchemy in a friend's kitchen one December afternoon, starting with the winter fruit tart recipe in the wonderful Bay Wolf Restaurant Cookbook. Thanks to the prunes, raisins, and red wine, the filling really is black, which is cool by itself. But even better is how making it perfumes the house with a deep medieval scent of winter at bay – a whiff of whiskey, a breath of ginger and cinnamon, a sparkle of fresh tangerine. The dried fruits aren't poached so much as steeped, so that after a slow warming, they sit on the back of the stove for an hour or so, soaking up the wine and spices, swelling soft and plump as they absorb nearly all the liquid. A sweet tart dough, richer and more tender than regular pie crust, works best here. To make it, mix together two and a half cups of flour, a quarter cup of sugar, and a half-teaspoon of salt. Cut in 12 tablespoons (one and a half sticks) of cold butter. Then, instead of the usual ice water, moisten the flour with two egg yolks, one teaspoon of vanilla, and three to four teaspoons of water. Chill for several hours while the filling is cooking and cooling.

Black tart filling

1 large apple, peeled and diced
1 cup each dried apricots and prunes
1/2 cup raisins
2-3 Tbs candied orange peel
1 cup red wine
¼ cup whisky
1/8 tsp each cinnamon and ginger
Big pinch freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup each brown sugar and white sugar, or to taste
Zest and juice of 1 tangerine
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
Tart dough (see above)

In a heavy-bottomed pot, mix all filling ingredients except the walnuts. Warm over low heat for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let fruit absorb the rest of the liquid for an hour or so. Add chopped walnuts. Divide the tart dough into two rounds and roll out. Line a tart pan with dough and spoon in filling. Cut remaining dough into strips. Lay strips in a crisscross pattern to cover most of the filling. Chill in the fridge for an hour or so, then bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling. Cool and serve with whipped cream.