Casserole: Baked Beef Ravioli

For the most part we eat really healthy around here. Every now and then we do eat something a bit more fattening. I tried this today for my son who is so picky and hasn't liked any dinners lately. We recently discovered he will eat Ravioli (and I refuse to feed him the canned stuff) so I thought this would be right up his alley and it was. Yay!!

I think it's really kindof a grown-up version of Ravioli from a can, but much, much better. If you have picky kids I really think they would like this recipe. At the very bottom of this post is the link to download the recipe already typed out.

Today's Helpful Hints
1-Use a garbage bowl. Rachael Ray introduced me to this concept through her shows and it really is a timesaver. I have a bowl in my cooking area that I put all the food garbage in (onion skins, ends from vege's, fatty parts from meats, etc. At the end of prep I dump it all out at once. Saves me time from going back and forth to the garbage can.

2-Build upon not what's only in your pantry but leftover items that need to be used from your fridge. I'll let you know in each of my recipes what my leftover items are. I really want to make sure my money is stretched and every possible scrap of food that can be used is.

Today's Recipe stars (in other words THE INGREDIENTS):
2 9-0z. packages refrigerated cheese-filled ravioli
1 1/2 pounds of ground beef*
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 tsp. basil, crushed
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1 1/2 cups shredded mozarella cheese (6 oz.)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (2 oz.)


*Please notice my ground beef in the upper left hand corner. We have a food saver and buy meat when it's on sale and food save it. This helps it last longer and doesn't get freezer burnt. I only had 1 lb. packages and it seemed like plenty of beef.


Preheat your oven to 375 then dice your onion.


Then mince your garlic. If you have a garlic press you can do that as well. I like to mince mine with a knife as it gives it a bit more substance.


Cook the ground beef, onion, and garlic on medium heat until the ground beef is cooked through and the onion is softened (undercooked onion can ruin a recipe and become an overwhelming flavor, soft cooked onion just helps accent the beef and give it some good flavor).


While the beef is cooking, cook the ravioli according to the pkg (about 4 min) and drain and set aside. I happened to have 1 pkg of ravioli already that was a tomato, basil, mozzarella ravioli and then I bought a cheese pkg today. I just cooked them together and it worked well together.


After the beef is cooked then drain off any fat if necessary and stir in the undrained tomatoes, tomato soup, basil, and oregano.


Gently stir in the ravioli. Ravioli is really tender and can break easily so be really gentle.


Transfer the mixture to a 9x13 pan and sprinkle with the mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered for 20 min., until heated through or until mozzarella is browned (I really like browned mozzarella, but you might like gooey mozzarella so do what's best for your family).

Leftovers I utilized from my fridge:
Shredded mozzarella from making pizza the other night
Refrigerated ravioli

This was a new recipe that we won't make every week but maybe once a month. It was good and would be excellent with a green salad and some good french bread if you can handle any more carbs. :)

If you are looking for ways to cut more fat/calories from the recipe you could:
1-Use ground turkey or chicken instead of beef - beware of the fat content of the turkey/chicken as sometimes it can be as much as the beef.
2-Use 1 lb instead of 1.5 lbs of beef/turkey/chicken
3-Cut out the parmesan and use less mozzarella. I couldn't taste the parm and probably won't use it next time.
4-Use a mushroom/other filling rather than 4-cheese ravioli. I'm going to try something like spinach ravioli next time. I can sneak in a little extra vege's that Matthew won't notice.

Click here to print out the recipe

You must have Adobe Reader in order to print this recipe out. It will open in a tab and then click print and it will ask if you want to download. Say yes and then a PDF file will open and you can print the recipe.