Baked Ravioli

If you're looking for a quick, simple dinner this is it! The whole thing comes together in about ten minutes and then just needs a bit of time in the oven.

I found this recipe through Pinterest. The original recipe uses frozen ravioli and while I don't think there's anything wrong with frozen ravioli I prefer to use these:

They're in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. At my store they're near the cheese. They'll cook a bit quicker than the frozen ravioli because they're smaller and not quite so cold.

I use them a lot. I have a tortellini soup recipe and a crock pot meal that both use the tortellini and you could definitely use tortellini in place of the ravioli (in fact I did the first time I made them) but the ravioli lays a little flatter in the pan. They have several varieties (my personal favorite is the Italian sausage filled tortellini) but tonight I went with cheese filled.

The great thing about this recipe is it has only four ingredients. Ravioli, sauce, and cheese. That's it. You could make your own sauce if you like and it only needs about half a jar of sauce so if you have some leftover marinara (I like to freeze mine to use as pizza sauce sometimes) or half a jar of sauce from another recipe you can just use that.

It stacks up kind of like lasagna and the ravioli doesn't need to be cooked in advance. I'm telling you it's stupid simple. I think it might be good with some cooked sausage or ground beef crumbled into the layers and the more I think about that the more I want to try that next time.

Baked Ravioli

Source: adapted from Tasty Kitchen

1 (20 oz) package Buitoni ravioli
1 jar pasta sauce
12 oz mozzarella, shredded
grated Parmesan cheese for serving

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking dish with vegetable oil spray.

Pour a small amount of sauce into the baking dish and spread it evenly across the bottom.

Begin placing the ravioli in a single layer over the sauce.

Place a dollop of sauce over each ravioli.

Sprinkle some of the cheese over the sauce.

Continue layering ravioli, sauce, and cheese until you have two full layers or until your ravioli are gone.

I had a about 2 1/2 layers so I put the extras on the edges so it would cook evenly.

End with a layer of cheese and sprinkle with a bit of grated Parmesan if you like.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the cheese on top is bubbly and brown.

Serve warm with garlic toast and a side salad.