Baked Ravioli

This casserole of Baked Ravioli was amazingly easy and I swear you can close your eyes and think you are eating lasagna… all the taste and texture of lasagna and a fraction of the work.

When I put together this dish…  I swear I heard angels singing….

 Why? … you might ask… well.. you see in this house we love lasagna.. and admittedly… I don’t make it often… even with the noodles that you don’t have to cook first… to me… lasagna just is too much work and time.. too much work for a weeknight and too much work for a busy weekend…and you really need to let it set before cutting otherwise you just don’t get nice clean cut…. I could go on and on.

So.. I was at the grocery store and ended up in the fresh pasta section… and looking at the larger ravioli… I had a sudden thought.. why not make a casserole of ravioli.   So I looked at the available filling… and lo and behold… I saw “Spicy sausage and beef”…. and an idea was born and off I was to get the rest of the ingredients.

TIPS

The ingredients I listed are for 4 servings.. you can easily increase any of the ingredient parts to accommodate more servings. 

I layered the ravioli so they would lay on top of another one (with filling in between) .. it made cutting a bit easier.. I did end up with a few extra and just placed them overlapping others.. it ended up cutting fine.

I thought the filling was a little too much for this amount of ravioli.. I could have made the filling thicker.. which I will probably do next time.. this time... I saved some filling for an omelet I made the next day… since I had about 3 tablespoons left.

For the sauce.. use any commercial or homemade recipe you have… “eyeball" the amounts on the bottom of the dish and the layers… any extra can be frozen or used in another recipe… I used what would be about ¾ of a jar (smaller size) spaghetti sauce.

I make my own sauce in the crockpot… here is the recipe…. I turned the crock pot off when I started supper and allowed it to cool down a bit before putting the casserole together.

Any flavor ravioli is fine.. whatever you prefer.. and they do not have to be cooked before layering in this casserole.

The garlic powder is listed as 1-2 teaspoons … we like it garlicy… if you don’t… use 1 teaspoon.

I used a 9 x 9 deep-dish baking dish.

This was so easy and absolutely delicious!

Recipe:  Baked Ravioli

All you need:

2 pkg (9 oz each) Buitoni refrigerated ravioli *See TIPS

About 1 jar of tomato (spaghetti) sauce *See TIPS

1 small container (15 oz) ricotta cheese (part skim or whole milk)

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg, slightly beaten

3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

1-2 teaspoons garlic powder *See TIPS

About 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Cooking oil spray (olive oil preferred)

All you have to do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl combine the ricotta cheese, egg, Parmesan cheese, chopped parsley and garlic powder.   Mix well and set aside.

Spoon a thick layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of a 9 inch square baking dish.  Lay a single layer of ravioli over the sauce.  Spread the ricotta filling over the raviolis (See TIPS).

Lay another layer of raviolis over the filling.  Spoon a thick layer of sauce over the raviolis.  Spread the shredded mozzarella over the top.  Lightly spray some olive oil cooking spray over the cheese. (This helps melt the cheese into a wonderful gooey topping.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the casserole is bubbly along the sides and the cheese has browned slightly.