Sauces for Ravioli

As much as I love cooking, sometimes I am just too exhausted at the end of the day to whip together a tasty meal. But why should my taste buds be punished?  So I always keep a few different types of ravioli in my freezer for a quick meal. Tomato sauce on meat or cheese ravioli is great, but I tend to lean towards mushroom, pumpkin, butternut squash, or spinach fillings.  So here is a short list of a few different sauces (besides tomato) that you can cook in the time it takes to cook the ravioli.

White Wine Sage Sauce
(great with mushroom ravioli)

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 clove minced garlic
1 tablespoon dried sage
1/2 cup white wine (whatever you have open, I have been using a Pinot Grigio recently)
Optional ingredients:
Truffle oil
Panko bread crumbs
Parmesan cheese (grated or shaved)
Note: This is for one serving, so multiply as needed!

To make, add the olive oil to a saute pan. Heat over medium-high heat, and add the garlic and sage. Let cook for one minute. Add the white wine, and turn the heat down to medium-low. Let simmer for a few minutes until it reduces. Remove from heat and pour over cooked ravioli. I really enjoy adding a little drizzle of truffle oil and then topping the ravioli off with panko and parmesan cheese. The truffle oil enhances the flavor of the ravioli and the panko adds a bit of a light crunch to the dish.
Brown Butter Sage Sauce
(great with pumpkin or butternut squash ravioli)
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
4 sage leaves
Lemon juice, to taste
Parmesan cheese, to taste
Note: This is for one serving, so multiply as needed!
To prepare, melt butter in a saute pan until a light brown color appears (about 3 minutes). Add the sage leaves and cook for one minute more (to help the leaves get a little crispy). Remove from heat and add a few drops of lemon juice. Add some Parmesan cheese and mix. Pour over the ravioli and serve.
Brown Butter Sage Sauce with Dried Cranberries
(great with pumpkin or butternut squash ravioli)
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon dried sage
1-2 teaspoons dried cranberries
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Note: This is for one serving, so multiply as needed!
To prepare, melt butter in a saute pan. Add the sage and dried cranberries and cook until a light brown color appears (about 3 minutes). Remove from heat. Add salt and pepper and mix. Pour over the ravioli and serve. Note: If you have walnuts, they would be fantastic in this dish, I just didn’t have any. Toast the walnuts in the oven at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the walnuts to the melted butter when you add in the sage and dried cranberries.
Roasted Walnuts – more of a topping than a sauce
(great with cheese or spinach ravioli)
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove chopped garlic
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
Parmesan cheese (grated or shaved), to taste
Note: This is for one serving, so multiply as needed!
To prepare, heat the oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and walnuts and cook until the walnuts are slightly toasted, stirring frequently (about 5 minutes). Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, and parsley. Remove from heat and pour over ravioli. Top with the Parmesan cheese.

Pasta in a Creamy Wild Mushroom Sauce

When the weather gets cold, I start craving pasta, pasta, and more pasta (I fully blame this on my Italian mother).  I don’t want to get stuck eating the same thing every night though, so I try to have a few recipes on hand that I can cycle through so that I don’t get sick of my delicious carbs.
Combining my love of mushrooms with my affinity of pasta, I tend to use this recipe a lot. This recipe does include whipping cream though, so I wouldn’t suggest making this a weekly staple. But it is a really easy and comforting meal.
Ingredients:
  • 1 box uncooked farfalle pasta
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 package of each of the following: shiitake, cremini, portobello and oyster mushrooms (if your supermarket has an exotic mushroom blend, grab 2 of those. If some other mushroom is calling your name, feel free to sub), sliced
  • ½ cup chopped onion
  • 1/3 cup chopped shallots
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt, divided
  • Pepper, to taste
  • ¼ cup dry white wine (I just used whatever white wine was on hand and open)
  • 2/3 cup whipping cream
  • ½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Scallops Grapefruit and Fennel? Hmm…

After watching a few episodes of Top Chef Masters recently, I had a hankering for some scallops (which I’m going to blame on seeing Jamie, who made like 14 scallop dishes during her season on Top Chef). Luckily, the December issue of Cooking Light had a recipe for scallops that looked really appealing: Seared scallops with fennel and grapefruit salad. I was interested to see how such strong flavors would work together.
Ingredients:
1 large grapefruit
1.5 cups sliced fennel bulb (1 small-ish bulb)
½ cup flat-leaf parsley
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
½ – 1 lb sea scallops (about 12 for two people)
Salt and Pepper, to taste
 To start, peel and section the grapefruit, reserving about ¾ cup grapefruit sections in a bowl. With the remaining grapefruit, squeeze to extract the juice (about ¼ cup) and set aside (apart from the grapefruit sections.
 To cut the fennel, trim off the stalks and discard. Remove any dirty or hard areas on the bulb (that white part at the bottom) by peeling off the first layer if needed.  Cut the bulb in half and lay them on the cutting board flat side down. Slice across the bulb in thin slices.
Combine the grapefruit sections, fennel, and parsley in a bowl. Set aside.
grapefruit and fennel salad
I always thought cooking scallops would be a daunting task, but it is actually really easy, and quick too! However, be careful to not overcook them, scallops can get very rubbery if left on the heat too long. This recipe called for pan frying the scallops so I started by heating 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a sauté pan. While waiting for the pan to heat up, I sprinkled some salt and pepper on the scallops and then added them to the pan one by one (I used tongs to put them in so that the liquid didn’t splash all over the place). Let the scallops cook one that one side for about 4 minutes. Use the tongs to flip the scallops over and cook for another minute. Remove the scallops and keep warm.
seared scallops
Add the reserved grapefruit juice to the pan and cook for about two minutes. Remove from heat.
To assemble the dish: place half of the fennel mixture on each plate (I made two servings). Divide scallops evenly (each plate should have 4-6 scallops) then top with half of the rendered juice.
This ended up being a really pretty dish, if I do say so myself. Taste-wise, it was something nice and different, but I don’t think I enjoy fennel ( = mild licorice) enough to add this to my list of rotating dinners. However, I’m pretty jazzed to add scallops to my list of foods I can handle cooking!

Pasta with Fresh Tomato-Basil Sauce

As the days grow colder, I begin to mourn the loss of one of my favorite summer ingredients: tomatoes.  I know, I know, tomatoes are available year round. But they lose their appeal when they begin to look like Styrofoam.  Trying to get in one last hurrah with fresh tomatoes, I decided to try a recipe from Cooking Light (September 2010 edition, I’m a little late in my preparation), “Pasta with Fresh Tomato-Basil Sauce”.

Ingredients
  • 1  (9-ounce) package refrigerated fresh fettuccine (I substituted box spaghetti, I’m sure fresh pasta would really enhance this dish though)
  • 2  tablespoons  olive oil
  • 3  garlic cloves, minced
  • 4  cups  cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1/2  teaspoon  salt
  • 1  cup  fresh basil leaves, torn
  • 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
  • 2  ounces  Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, shaved (about 1/2 cup)

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