Lazy Woman's Ravioli Stuffed with Portobello Mushrooms (Recipe)

This recipe is for those nights when you want something yummy but you’ve spent hours in the garden and you are dog-tired.  You pick the fresh tomatoes and wander back into the kitchen.  The last thing you want to do is cook, but your husband is barbecued-out after Labor Day weekend.  You cruise the freezer and the pantry and come up with this gem.

Frozen mushroom ravioli (Safeway Select brand is actually great)

1 16 oz jar of  Four Cheese Alfredo Sauce (Di Parma Classico Signature Recipes is delicious)

1 can of sliced or button mushrooms, rinsed

4 TBS. Balsamic vinegar

½ teaspoon olive oil

 Directions

This recipe is unbelievably easy.  First you add the rinsed mushrooms and the Balsamic vinegar to the Alfredo Sauce.  Let the sauce simmer on a low heat stirring occasionally but be careful not to let it boil.  It will taste fine, but it won’t be as creamy looking.  Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil.  Add a half teaspoon of salt or a drip of olive oil to keep the pasta from sticking together.  Drop the frozen raviolis in the boiling water one by one and let them cook for 2 to 3 minutes.  You may want to stir gently once or twice to keep them from sticking to the bottom, but do it carefully so they don’t break apart. 

Most (Non-Italian) people overcook ravioli.  It starts breaking apart and the filling starts seeping out when one does, so 2 or 3 minutes will do it.  When all the raviolis are floating, I swear they are done.  As rich as the Alfredo sauce is, the vinegar thins it down a bit and gives it a unique flavor that is very subtle.  

Drain the raviolis in a colander and then return them to the sauce pan. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil across the top.  Shake the sauce pan so that the olive oil mixes a bit and it will keep the raviolis separated.  Now serve with the Balsamic/Alfredo sauce.  The sauce color is … well… the color of a mushroom too, so put a pretty parsley and cherry tomato garnish on the side of the plate or top with sautéed sliced mushrooms arranged in a flower shape in the center.

This is a rich, tasty dish, so keep portions small to moderate and puff up the total quantity with a fresh green salad. The package says 9 pieces of ravioli are one serving, which is quite filling.  About 45 to 50 raviolis come in the Safeway Select brand package, so it is a very economical dish to serve too. 

Calorie and carbohydrate counts?  They are less than you would imagine if you made the Alfredo sauce yourself.  Here they are:

9 pieces of ravioli     Fat:  10% of DV, Saturated Fat 3.5 g 18% of DV, Trans Fat 0 g

                                Calories:  280 for 9 pieces of ravioli

        Cholesterol 45 mg     14% of DV

                                Sodium   300   mg     13% of DV

                                Total Carbohydrates  44g  15% of DV

                                Dietary Fiber 3 g 12% of DV

                                Sugars  3 g 

                                Protein 12 grams

Sauce:  3/8 cup has 120 calories, with 75 of them coming from fat, but there are no transfats and saturated fat is only 15% of the Daily Value (DV) based on a 2000 calorie diet.  (Okay, so that is all you guys out there and not one woman I know, but at least it is a benchmark.) 

The sauce has 6 grams of carbohydrate in a 3/8 cup serving. 

The total dish has only 400 calories and 50 carbohydrates for a very fine tasting dinner.