Freezer Food Friday - Ravioli Lasagna
Friday, July 6, 2007 | Labels: Freezer Food Friday | |
Save yourself from the dinnertime crunch by preparing your own meals ahead of time. Prepare a week or a months worth of dinners or just throw an extra meatloaf in the oven when you're preparing tonight's dinner. Freezing meals not only saves you time but it can save you money too!.
Do you have any freezer food recipes?. If so write about it on your blog and link it using Mister Linky below. Don't forget to grab the button above and link back here so all your readers can come and join in too!!!
Here's mine:
Do you have any freezer food recipes?. If so write about it on your blog and link it using Mister Linky below. Don't forget to grab the button above and link back here so all your readers can come and join in too!!!
Here's mine:
I saw this on Rachael Ray's Show yesterday and thought it would be perfect for Freezer Food Friday, so I did a search and found the recipe on her website.
Ravioli Lasagna
3 family-size packages of frozen cheese ravioli
2 cups shredded provolone
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 pound ground sirloin
1/4 pound ground pork
1/4 pound ground veal
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 cup red wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons allspice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup beef or chicken stock
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
1/2 bunch of basil, chopped
1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Bring a pot of water to boil, season heavily with salt. Cook ravioli for about 6 minutes, until almost cooked through. Drain and lay flat on a plate to avoid them from clumping together. Set aside until ready to assemble the lasagna.
In a large sauce pan heat EVOO and begin browning the meat in small batches. Be sure to brown the meat to the point of it becoming a little on the crispy side. This will give the sauce a deep flavor. Move browned meat over to one side of the pan, leaving room on one side of the pan. Add the onion, carrot, garlic and bay leaf, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping up all the bits from the meat and veggies off the bottom of the pan.
Cook the wine for 5 minutes. Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and allspice. Add Worcestershire and stock; bring up to a bubble. Add the crushed tomato and tomato sauce, and cook until the sauce becomes a bit thicker, about 10-20 minutes. In the last 10 minutes of cooking, add 1/2 of the basil and parsley then remove from heat.
In a 9x13 baking dish, begin layering the lasagna. To the bottom of the dish evenly disperse 1 cup of the sauce. Take 1/3 of the ravioli and mound them on top of the sauce. Spread them out in an even layer and into the corners of the baking dish. Top ravioli with more sauce.
Repeat 2 more times, finishing off with a generous amount of Parmigiano and provolone cheese on the top.
Bake lasagna for 10 minutes until cheese is bubbly. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes before serving and garnish with other half of basil and parsley.
Freezer Options - You can make this dish ahead of time and freeze. When you want to eat it, let it thaw in the refrigerator and then bake until heated through.
Or
Cook the meat part and freeze separately. When you want to serve the lasagna, defrost and heat up the meat sauce and assemble the lasagna as per directions above.
Have you got a recipe for us?. Link it here
This looks delicious! I can't wait to try it out. Thanks for posting. Have a great weekend.
This looks great! Thanks for sharing!
MJ
our freezer group made this a few months ago and it was very very freezer friendly and yummy!
Love your blog and the freezer recipes, I cant wait to try some out.