Do you have guests over for dinner and want to surprise them with a fancy dish without too much effort? Or did you just get home tired and wish you could cook from the couch? Either way, I may have just the recipe for you.
It takes about an hour, but trust me: you’ll spend most of it on Netflix! The time you’ll actually spend at the stove is less than 10 minutes.
And at the end, you’ll have a hearty comfort dish dressed with a delicious meat sauce that you can enjoy in your comfort pants watching TV, or in front of your date with a glass of red wine.
Does it show that I like versatile recipes?
Meet ravioli with sausage ragout!
This recipe is similar to my favorite spaghetti sauce, which I wrote about in my article about the best Italian tomato sauces. But instead of using dry pasta, you’re going to use ravioli, which are much faster to cook. And instead of ground beef, you’ll use one Italian sausage for each person at the table.
What I love about this recipe
This recipe is one of my go-to options whenever there’s ravioli in my house. Not only for all the reasons I listed above: these fresh egg pasta dumplings and their ricotta filling seem to be tailor-made to match the delicious flavor and tender texture of the sausage.
Wrapped in a creamy tomato sauce along with spices and sautéing, the ingredients come together to form a dish that can put anyone in a good mood.
What you’ll need
As you could easily guess from such an easy recipe, the ingredient list is also quite simple. Here’s everything you need:
- ravioli
- Italian sausages;
- Tomato sauce;
- One onion, one carrot, and two stalks of celery, to make the sauté;
- red wine;
- milk;
- salt and ground black pepper;
- olive oil;
- basil leaves;
You can make the ravioli from scratch, if you want. But in the spirit of slacking, you can also buy them from a trusted pasta shop or grocery store. In the second case, just make sure they’re freshly made, as they are better than those sold in packages.
You can also make the sauce spicier by adding some red chili pepper flakes at the end of the method that you’ll see below. But although I love spicy dishes, this recipe doesn’t need them to be awesome.
Method
Start by preparing the ingredients.
Step 1: dice the vegetables as finely as possible
Step 2: Remove the skin from the sausages and coarsely chop them into small pieces.
Now, it’s time to sauté.
Step 3: Olia a large saucepan and sauté the celery and carrot for a couple of minutes on low heat.
Step 4: Add the sausages, and after about half a minute add the onions as well.
This is to prevent the onions from sautéing too much, as they tend to burn much sooner than the other ingredients.
Step 5: When the sausages begin to brown, add the red wine to deglaze. This will balance their flavor and give your sauce a better texture. Let the wine evaporate completely while stirring well.
Step 6: When it is the wine has evaporated, turn the stove on low heat, add the tomato sauce along with a ladle of water, give it a stir, and cover the saucepan with a lid.
Now, you can safely sit back and watch an episode of your favorite series. I usually do this from my phone in the kitchen, because I like to keep an eye on the pan in case the sauce starts to stick. But if you’ve added enough water and turned the heat down to low, and you come back every so often to check the sauce and stir it, you might as well go curl up on the couch.
Step 7: After about 40 to 45 minutes, fill a pot with water and bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, give the sauce a stir and add the salt and spices.
Step 8: When the water boils, salt it and add the ravioli.
Step 9: Add the milk to the sauce and stir again. This will help counterbalance the acidity of the tomato and make it more full-bodied.
Step 10: After about 5 minutes, the ravioli should float on the surface of the water. This means they are ready.
Step 11: Drain the ravioli, toss with the sauce, get the next episode started, and enjoy along with a full-bodied red wine or golden lager beer.
I’m sure this recipe will revolutionize your midweek dinners. But as I said before, it’s so good that you can use it for any occasion. Whether it’s a solo dinner on a couch, a party with friends, or your next Sunday lunch, these ravioli with sausage ragout will be perfect.
If you try them, let me know what you think. I’m especially curious about your favorite beer and wine pairings.
In the meantime, buon appetito!
Print
Ravioli with sausage ragout
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
32 oz ravioli
4 sausages
1 onion
1 carrot
2 celery sticks
1 jar of tomato sauce
32 oz tomato sauce
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup milk
fine & coarse salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
basil leaves to taste
extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Dice the vegetables as finely as possible.
- Remove the skin from the sausages and coarsely chop them into small pieces.
- Oil a large saucepan and sauté the celery and carrot for a couple of minutes on low heat.
- Add the sausages, and after about half a minute add the onions as well.
- When the sausages begin to brown, add the red wine to deglaze. This will balance their flavor and give your sauce a better texture. Let the wine evaporate completely while stirring well.
- When it is the wine has evaporated, turn the stove on low heat, add the tomato sauce along with a ladle of water, give it a stir, and cover the saucepan with a lid.
- After about 40 to 45 minutes, fill a pot with water and bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, give the sauce a stir and add the salt and spices/herbs.
- When the water boils, salt it and add the dumplings.
- Add the milk to the sauce and stir again. This will help counterbalance the acidity of the tomato and make it more full-bodied.
- After about 5 minutes, the ravioli should float on the surface of the water. This means they are ready.
- Drain the ravioli, toss with the sauce, and enjoy along with a full-bodied red wine or golden lager beer.
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 60
- Category: Main Dishes
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: ravioli, comfort dinner
