Ravioli lasagna a la Rachael Ray

Happy Hump Day! While you are reading this, I am out at Post 390 having dinner with a friend. I have had some major writer’s block this week. I spent much of last night working on my entry for Stonyfield’s Na-Moo-Ste Giveaway and my new Thankful for Thirty series, which I planned on posting tonight, but I just kept hitting dead ends. So tonight I am sharing a quick, easy, and delicious recipe adapted from an idea on Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals 2. (http://rachaelrayblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/its-keeper-ravioli-lasagna.html#) As usual, I took this recipe and made it my own. After a perfect 3 mile run on a warm, golden fall evening, I took to the kitchen to make a delicious dinner. My ingredients: 1 package Trader Joe’s jumbo 4 cheese ravioli 2 Trader Joe’s pesto parmesan turkey burgers, thawed 1 can peeled plum tomatoes 1/4 white onion, roughly chopped 3 cloves garlic a shake of crushed red pepper

I started out by whipping up a homemade tomato/meat sauce for the lasagna. I mixed the onion with some olive oil and cooked until translucent, then added in the garlic. What an incredible smell!

Then I poured in the tomatoes, liquid and all. Because the ravioli are going to cook in the sauce, having a bit of extra liquid helps to make sure they cook through.
 
I used a fork and wooden spoon to break up the whole tomatoes, and the result was a nice, chunky sauce. I then placed the turkey burgers in the sauce and brought it up to a low boil, stirring and breaking them up so that the sauce became a nice meat sauce.

While that was simmering I laid the first layer of ravioli in a glass baking dish.

Then I ladled half of the sauce over the ravioli, added another layer, and repeated with the rest of the sauce. I actually ended up omitting the mascarpone cheese pictured above in the cooking because the raviolis already contained cheese. I took the whole dish and popped it in the oven at 375 for 12 minutes, waiting until the sauce was bubbling and the raviolis were tender. At the last second, we added a small scoop of mascarpone to the top of our bowls of “lasagna”. It added a rich creaminess to the dish at the very end. And I had another teaspoon all by itself. Mascarpone cheese is delicious. I don’t have a photo of the final product because I was so eager to eat. Bad food blogger! 😉 Hope you guys have a great night! Don’t forget to enter my Healthy Halloween giveaway, and I will be back tomorrow, hopefully with something inspiring!