Day 62: Ravioli “Lasagna”
I suppose at least my current crazy schedule is making this project more interesting. Or more dull?
Today I taught a homemade pasta class at the Cookbook Company with Lina deGaeta, master pasta-maker and the wife of the owner of the Italian Supermarket on the corner of Edmonton Trail and 20th Ave NE. (Who makes, by the way, the best pizza in Calgary – Saturday afternoons only they fire up the wood-burning oven and you can order pizza any way you like it, with real Italian ingredients and chewy, bulbous crusts.)
Tonight though, my call time to the set of It’s Just Food is 10:30pm, and we’re going to shoot all night. So I had a bit of a nap, and then, technically, it was dinnertime. Because I was assembling a sort of “lasagna” made out of fresh ravioli as a beauty shot for the show, I assembled another small one for Mike and W. (I got the idea from a cookbook put out by Real Simple magazine.)
I ate a wedge of frozen chocolate zucchini cake. That counts as dinner, right? After all, it does contain a vegetable, and was made with canola oil – a healthy fat.
Ravioli Lasagna
AuthorJulieThis is as fast and easy as it gets. The ravioli is already filled, so you don’t need to layer your noodles with filling. Also great when cooking for one – you can make individual sized lasagnas, which isn’t possible when using pasta sheets or lasagna noodles.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Spray a 9”x13” baking dish with nonstick spray, and spread about a third of the tomato sauce over the bottom. Lay half the ravioli in a single layer overtop. Sprinkle with the spinach and half the cheese, another third of the sauce and then the remaining ravioli, sauce and cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake another 10 minutes, until golden and bubbly.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Spray a 9”x13” baking dish with nonstick spray, and spread about a third of the tomato sauce over the bottom. Lay half the ravioli in a single layer overtop. Sprinkle with the spinach and half the cheese, another third of the sauce and then the remaining ravioli, sauce and cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake another 10 minutes, until golden and bubbly.
I just started working for MarxFoods.com, an online specialty food company, and depending on how simple or adventurous you’d like to get with your ravioli lasagna we have amazing frozen ravioli with hand-made fillings ranging from cheese to lobster, osso bucco, roasted duck, short rib and asparagus. I’m looking forward to trying your recipe and the zucchini cake!
I like that lazy lasagna fix! Shall definitely be doing that sometime soon.
By the way, Julie your featured today on my blog:
http://danamccauley.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/street-food-comes-to-the-wild-west/
I seriously need to get a bundt pan. This is the 3rd recipe I have seen for a cake to be baked in a “tube” pan this week.
On a happier note – I think ravioli lasagna is on the menu tonight! Perfect for our 9″ of new snow!
This zucchini cake is just “soo yummie”. My kids and husband just dived into it. Great recepie and fun to do with the kids. Plus, you have the best website for everyday cooking for families: pictures Wow !!!
Bravo ans A+++ !!!
Not sure what went wrong but this just didn’t turn out right. What size zucchini did you use? I used 2 cups of shredded since that is what most other zuchinni cake/bread recipes use. It also took alot longer than 45 minutes.
Hmmm.. that’s strange. I use just an average zucchini, sometimes on the small side, sometimes bigger. Not sure what happened! Is your oven temperature reliable? Let me try it again and see if I missed something…
hmmm, not sure what I did either, but I baked it for 55 min. and it was still just goo in the middle…
OK, I made it again today, and it worked out fine – only needed an extra 5 minutes in the oven (50 instead of 45) but that’s a normal kind of fluctuation… have you tested your oven lately? You can buy an oven thermometer for around $7 and just throw it in your oven to make sure it’s the right temp – if not, just adjust your oven accordingly.
For any type of cake, you want to bake it until the top is springy to the touch. If you touch it with your finger and it leaves a dent, it is still underbaked inside. I’m not sure what else to suggest – did you use a traditional bundt pan?
HI!
Looking for your chocolate zucchini cake recipe and can’t find it. Any ideas where else on the site I could find it? Thnks!
Hello
Where can I find the recipe for chocolate zucchini cake?? I can’t find it on your website! Thanks!
I see this is an old post for you, but I had to let you know I found this thanks to a friend and Pinterest. It is now a staple meal for my family, easy and cheap. Perfect. Thank you.
Did a riff on this today…roasted red pepper pasta sauce, sautéed mild Italian sausage meat and shredded fresh basil between layers and sliced fresh mozzarella on top…WOWZA!!!! Deeeelish!!!! And all ingredients bought at Scarpone’s off McKnight….
Is the ravioli pre-cooked when you assemble to ravioli lasagne or can I throw it in uncooked?
You can throw the ravioli in uncooked as long as you have nice saucy sauce Paula!