Someday I intend to make my own raviolis. I also intend to win the lottery. Guess I should start buying tickets?? Maybe?
I have never been successful at cooking raviolis using the traditional method of submerging them in water. Every time, I mean EVERY TIME, I have a bunch of them pop open spilling all that lovely filling into the water. Watery cheesy goo just doesn’t cut it for me. How about you?
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So it dawned on me one day that there was a solution. The solution was easy. The solution was tasty. The solution was quick. The solution used garlic. The solution was good.
By creating a wet sauce that gets poured over the raviolis and then baking them until the sauce is all lovely thick and bubbly, the pasta gets cooked gently and the filling stays inside. And hey, even if some of the raviolis pop open, it just gets incorporated into the sauce and its all good!
Easy Baked Ravioli Recipe
Ingredients
-
- 2 lbs. fresh or frozen raviolis of choice (mine were spinach and cheese, yum!)
- 2 15 oz. cans diced tomatoes
- 3/4 c. red wine (I like cheap jug-o-wine burgundy)
- 1/2 – 3/4 c. water
- 3 Tbsp. finely chopped garlic
- 1/2 c. pitted and sliced Kalamata olives, or sliced black olives
- 1/ 2 tsp. each dried basil, oregano, thyme, and parsley (or 2 tsp. of an “Italian” herb mix)
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 tsp. salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Generously drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a 9 x 13 oven proof casserole dish and spread it around the bottom and a little up the sides. Place your raviolis in the casserole dish and evenly distribute them.
Put all the remaining ingredients into a mixing bowl, using the lower amount of water, and add another 2-3 Tbsp. of olive oil. Mix all the contents together well. Spoon the tomato mixture evenly over the raviolis. The raviolis should be mostly or all the way submerged. Add the extra water if needed to cover the raviolis.
Put the dish into the oven and bake until the liquid is bubbling throughout. If you started with frozen raviolis, this may take 45 minutes or more. If you used fresh raviolis, you may only need 20-30 minutes. Check about halfway through the cooking time to make sure the raviolis have stayed submerged, gently pushing them into the liquid if they have started to stick out.
Once the sauce is bubbling throughout, remove the casserole from the oven. Allow to cool a little before serving. The sauce will also thicken as it cools. Top with grated parmesan or similar cheese, if desired. Dinner is served!
Mostly Greek 
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