Quick & Easy Creamy Lemon-Garlic Ravioli

Has anyone else been struggling to find inspiration for 3 meals a day every day during this COVID-19 pandemic?  I've come to realize how often we ate out or even just picked up snacks out.  Now we are basically enjoying all meals inside.

I'm a PC Insiders member and I didn't even realize we had exclusive access to something called the Insiders Project until I received an email saying they were giving free access to everyone during the pandemic! 

Well of course I had to go on and browse what they have on there - and wow! Lots of variety and lots of great looking recipes.  So of course I had to try one of them out.

I've always loved a cream sauce on my pasta, even though my kids are not big fans.  And no matter what I do, I can never really replicate my mom's cream sauce, and any that I've found online are not what I would consider keepers.  Well tonight the pasta was enjoyed by all and my husband actually said "Wow! This is a keeper!" Now that's saying a lot because I'm pretty sure my kids inherited their dislike for cream sauces from him.  He started talking about all the different ways we could use this sauce in other dishes.

This amount was perfect for our family of 4, and it came together very quickly.  Once I popped the frozen ravioli in the boiling water, I got started on the sauce.  It has very little prep involved as well - grate the cheese, mince the garlic and zest the lemon.  The recipe calls for 1 cup of Parmesan cheese, but I never measure and always use till I think it looks good. Of course, you could use any pasta you want, but for some reason I love ravioli in a cream sauce.

Ingredients:

400g bag frozen cheese ravioli
2 tbsp butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup cream
zest of one lemon
sea salt to taste
1 tsp dried parsley
(1 cup) Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tbsp lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place frozen ravioli in a salted (large) pot of boiling water. Cook until the ravioli is al dente (approx. 8-10 minutes).  Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water, and drain the ravioli.

2. While ravioli is cooking, melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Be careful not to brown or burn the garlic.  Stir in cream, lemon zest, dried parsley and salt.  Simmer until the sauce is reduced by half, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add drained ravioli and 1/2 cup pasta water.  Increase heat to medium-high, then cook, stirring often until the sauce thickens and coats the pasta, approx. 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and gradually grate the Parmesan cheese over top, stirring occasionally.  Stir in lemon juice and season with black pepper.  Serve.

Makes 4 servings.

Pasta & Veggie Bake

Have you guys seen those Philadelphia Cooking Cremes? I recently got a coupon for one so I bought it and it's been sitting in my fridge. While I was nursing my baby I was reading through my What's Cooking mag that came in the mail today and there were several ads with recipes for these various sauces. One of them was a bake with squash and pasta. I thought to myself, 'I have one of those sauces in my fridge and a bunch of cut up squash from making baby food a few days earlier; maybe I could pull this off!'

So I opened my fridge and pulled out the sauce - a different one from the recipe - but I was not discouraged; I would make my own healthier pasta bake. In fact the only actual ingredients from the recipe I had were squash, a pasta, a sauce, an onion and olive oil. I pulled out the squash, an onion, a zucchini, mushrooms and a red pepper. I was excited.

Have you ever had small amounts of uncooked pasta left sitting in a bag or box? Such small amounts that you can't really cook them for a meal because it's never enough to feed anyone? Well those would come in handy today. My pasta bake had rigatoni, fusilli, and penne.

This recipe is great for cleaning out your fridge and cupboards - that's what I was able to do today.

As I'm typing this I can smell the aroma wafting from the oven and I can't wait to try this out!

INGREDIENTS

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
1 onion, cut in half lengthwise and then sliced
1 red pepper, seeded and cut into chunks
1 zucchini, sliced
1/2 package (227g) of sliced mushrooms
1 tsp paprika
3 tbsp (approx) olive oil
5 cups uncooked short pasta
1 tub Philadelphia Tomato & Basil Cooking Creme
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400F.
Combine the vegetables, paprika and olive oil in a large baking dish or casserole dish, making sure the veggies are coated with the oil and paprika.

Bake 45 minutes or until the squash is tender. Mix the cheeses together and set aside.
Meanwhile cook the pasta in unsalted boiling water. Drain the pasta, saving about 1/2-3/4 cup cooking water. Add the pasta to the veggies as well as the cooking creme, cooking water and half of the cheese mixture. Mix it together. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over top.
Bake for another 20 minutes, until it is heated through, the cheese is melted and the cheese on top has browned.

This will make 6-8 servings.

It turned out really nice. The cheese on top was nicely browned and had a good crunch to it. It was also a very filling dish. It would pair well with a salad for a great dinner! Next time I make it I will definitely put more sauce. As I poured the tub I had a feeling there wasn't enough sauce and I was right; I'd definitely use another half a tub if not another whole one. You can really use any sauce and I think this would turn out great. My husband suggested a nice meaty tomato sauce, which would add some more substance to your dish. I think any jarred sauce or homemade sauce would be great. I personally love creamy sauces and the creaminess adds well to the roasted squash and other veggies. What sauce would you use? If you tried a different sauce, let us know how it turned out in the comments below!