Ravioli for the lazy.

It was lunch time again. Something simple and something that wouldn't take a lot of time in preparation was in order. But ravioli? Yes, ravioli.

Making ravioli by hand... for yourself... for one meal....is a bitch. It just is. You have to make the pasta (which can be difficult for those virgin-pasta-makers out there), create (and sometimes cook the stuffing), portion out the stuffing onto the pasta sheets, then glue them together, cut, and cook. It's a big task. Imagine what it would be like to be the pasta maker at Italian restaurants that serve different kinds of pastas, especially raviolis.

I had taken an internship at one such Italian restaurant in my home town the summer of 2009. It was a good learning experience. It taught me 'get out of this field as soon as possible'. We did have multiple kinds of raviolis and they had different shapes and fillings. They were all delicious, but mass production was an arduous task. (Luckily we had one sole pasta maker and that was all he did for the most part.)

Anyways, back to the present; for lunch: Trio of mushrooms stuffed agnolotti with broccoli, sauteed mushrooms and onions, a tomato and bean sauce, with Morel and Leek Monterrey cheese.

How to do it:

1. Buy the raviolis at the store! Cook them! They have pre-made pastas which can create one big meal or a side dish for maybe three (depending on appetite). I think Buitoni makes decent stuff. They produce raviolis and noodles and easy stuff to make a meal with. BUT, they are not like dried pastas. If you buy them, either use them or freeze them within a week of bad things will happen! Ooooooooo! ::pasta ghost::.

2. Making the sauce. I used chunky garden tomato sauce after I had sauteed some button mushrooms and onions in butter with a little S&P, then I cut up some broccoli heads into slices and added those in as well as the previously mentioned sauce. THEN I ADDED A BIG SPOONFUL OF HUMMUS?! That's right, I did just that. Hummus is pretty much it's own ingredient. It has garliciness, it had acid from lemon juice, it has savory and bitter flavor from the tahini. It's pretty much good to eat traditionally or in any chili, sauce, or soup. Ta da!

3. Add it all together and devour!