Baked Ravioli Valentines

Heart-shaped cheese-filled ravioli dipped in a tangy sauce and coated with seasoned breadcrumbs, then baked. Serve with sauce to dunk and you've got a kid friendly vegetarian Valentine's day meal.

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After sharing the contents of my fridge--as is--on my Instagram feed and Facebook page I figured I'd pan back from the tight Polish Pottery hearts photo to instead show the real state of one of my cookbook shelves.

For the past few years we've been eating this simple supper on Valentine's day. It's festive, but easy to get in the oven and it cooks quickly. I usually don't take photos--after all, I just picked up the package of ravioli at Costco and didn't make them myself--but I figured I'd share since the idea is a simple and good one. I got the idea from this recipe.



My favorite Valentine's Day meal was when my spouse and I were dating. He took me away for the weekend--told me to pack a bag, arranged for my friend to watch my dog, and told me where we were going en route. We spent a weekend in a castle in Germany [full disclosure, we already lived in Germany so it was maybe a 2 hr drive away]. We hiked in the snow, hot tubbed, used up our weekend supply of firewood in a night [the front desk staff frowned at our request for more] and ate some amazing meals. But that was pre-kids.


Nowadays, I'd rather cocoon at home with my family than to wait endlessly for a table in a crowded noisy restaurant. A Valentine's day dinner that tastes good, is easy enough for the kids to make for us, and looks celebratory works for me.

Using sour cream or plain Greek yogurt thinned with milk, and panko mixed with Italian seasonings, the kids dipped and breaded the ravioli hearts while Robert Barker supervised. I was canning Ham Stock from a leftover ham bone and I made a dipping sauce from slow-roasted tomatoes I'd frozen at the end of the summer.  If you don't have a freezer full of slow-roasted tomatoes, grab a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce for dipping.

If you do have slow-roasted tomatoes, I tossed a 3 cup bag into a pot with a cube of pesto and a cube of store-bought tomato paste (also from the freezer), and a parmesan rind. Once everything simmered together for a while, I added some salt, pepper, and honey until it tasted good. Easy peasy.  Here's another recipe for a meaty pasta sauce using slow-roasted tomatoes.
Yet another way to eat local year round.

This vegetarian supper was ready in under 45 minutes. If you're not bickering with your sibling or are faster in the kitchen than we are, you'd have this meal on the table in under 30.



Note: I got the idea for this recipe from this one. I swapped out the butter for sour cream thinned with milk though sometimes I've used plain Greek yogurt. I also use panko not Italian breadcrumbs because it's what I have on hand in my pantry.

Baked Ravioli Valentines

Ingredients

• ¾ to 1 cup panko (or the dried bread crumb of your choice)
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning blend herbs
• ½ cup sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt, I've used both)
• 2 to 4 Tablespoons milk
• 1 package refrigerated cheese ravioli (I get red and white heart-shaped ones from Costco around Valentine's day, and since that's pretty specific I won't specify the package size. Get enough to feed your family. The double package from Costco is 2 meals + leftovers for us.)
• 1 cup slow-roasted tomato sauce (see above), or spaghetti sauce of your choice, warmed

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a wide shallow bowl, or a plate with a good rim, or medium bowl mix together panko and seasonings. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl stir sour cream with milk, starting with 2 Tablespoons and adding more if your sour cream is particularly thick until you have a pourable consistency that is still thick enough to coat the ravioli.
4. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper for easiest clean up, or rub a bit of butter or oil on the baking sheet instead.
5. Set up your pans so that you can work in a continuous direction towards the baking sheet. Ravioli, then sour cream, then panko, then baking sheet.
6. Toss the ravioli gently in the sour cream mixture, then let the excess drip off before transferring to the breadcrumb plate. Flip to coat both sides with bread crumbs. Place on prepared sheet.
7. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until bread crumbs are lightly browned.
8. Serve with warm sauce for dipping.