Spinach and Cheese Ravioli with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce

This weekend I had a ton of spinach I needed to use up, so I had this wacky idea to make some ravioli with spinach stuffed inside. Not exactly "from scratch" ravioli, since that would require making my own pasta for which I have not the time, but using refrigerated won-ton wrappers. I've seen it done a lot, and I thought, How hard can it really be?

It wasn't hard, but it was time-consuming. And in the end, I just wasn't all that impressed with the results. The ravioli didn't tear too much for me, but I did find that the texture of the finished product was sort of...slimy. It was a bit unappetizing.

They tasted just fine, once I got past the texture issue; the filling was delicious, and the sauce was very flavorful. But ultimately, using won-ton wrappers just didn't impress me too much. Next time, I'll either make my own pasta, or buy some spinach-filled ravioli at the store and pair it with this sauce.

Spinach and Cheese Ravioli with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce
Source: Cassie

1 package refrigerated won-ton wrappers
8 ounces ricotta cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, divided
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 cups baby spinach, trimmed
1 cup heavy cream
1 jar roasted red peppers, drained
Salt and pepper to taste

1. On the stove, bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Add spinach a cup at a time and cook just until softened; drain and squeeze dry.

2. Meanwhile, combine ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup of the parmesan cheese, garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste for the ravioli filling. Mix in spinach.

3. Top each won-ton wrapper with a tablespoon of the filling. Dab a bit of water around the filling and top with a second won-ton wrapper. Pinch around the sides to ensure that the ravioli is tightly sealed.

4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add salt and olive oil and reduce heat. Cook ravioli in batches of 10 for about 5 minutes; drain. It's important not to overcrowd the pot.

5. To prepare the sauce, bring heavy cream to a simmer over medium heat. Puree roasted red peppers in a food processor or blender; add to cream. Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese and salt and pepper, and simmer until sauce is thickened (do not boil).

Pasta with Creamy Spinach and Parmesan Cheese

I made this pasta dish for dinner last night, and this morning when he got home from work the first thing Joe said to me was, "That pasta you made last night was so good. You've got to make that again soon." And believe me, honey, I will make it again soon.

This meal is the kind of thing I absolutely love to cook: simple ingredients, that are simple to prepare, that come together to make something absolutely knock-you-over good. My oh my, this pasta was delicious. This recipe comes from On Top of Spaghetti..., a pasta cookbook I've had for a long time but never cooked from. After looking through it, I discovered that it's filled with delicious pastas I'm just dying to try, and it's definitely one I'm going to come back to frequently. All that pasta...my poor, poor waistline.

I made very few changes and additions to this recipe, mostly just for convenience's sake; they're in purple.

I would entertain with this pasta. As a main course. It is that good.

Pasta with Creamy Spinach and Parmesan Cheese
Source: On Top of Spaghetti... by Johanne Killeen and George Germon

12 ounces dried spaghettini (I used an entire box of fettucine)
8 cups firmly-packed washed and trimmed baby spinach
1 cup heavy cream (I used about 1 1/2 cups)
10 swipes of fresh nutmeg across a grater (I used a dash of dried)
20 to 25 turns of a pepper mill filled with white peppercorns (I used a couple dashes of ground white pepper)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Stir in a generous amount of salt and drop in the pasta. After a minute or two, add the spinach a handful at a time so the water doesn't lose its boil at any time. Cook, stirring often, until al dente.

2. Meanwhile, warm the cream over moderate heat with the nutmeg, pepper, salt and garlic powder. Bring it to a boil, but don't let it reduce. Taste the cream; it should be well-flavored with nutmeg and pepper. Add more if needed.

3. Drain the pasta and spinach in a collander, reserving about 1 cup of the pasta cooking water. Over low heat, stir the pasta into the cream mixture along with most of the parmesan cheese (save the rest for passing at the table or garnishing). If the noodles absorb too much cream, add pasta water, a tablespoon at a time, until you have the consistency of heavy cream, with each serving having a puddle in the bottom of the bowl. Serve immediately.

Creamy Spinach Artichoke Pasta

I am always printing off recipes I find online. I stuff all of them into a massive notebook that's already way too full of them -- so full that it will barely close. Because this system is so unorganized, most of those recipes go unused because it's too much of a hassle to sort through all of them to find what I'm looking for.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I found myself with a little bit of spare time, and I decided to organize all of these recipes. I bought a huge three-ring binder, sheet protectors, and labeled dividers, and I threw myself into the project. And now, I have a very well-organized place for all of my internet recipes to call home.

To celebrate, all of our meals this week are coming from that binder. They're all internet recipes I printed out ages ago and haven't yet tried. Last night, I made the first one -- and WOW, was it a winner!

I love the combination of spinach and artichokes, and I love cream cheese, and I love pasta, so when I found a recipe for creamy spinach artichoke pasta I immediately started salivating. This pasta was so, so good. I made a few changes to the recipe, and they were good ones: I added one chopped roasted red pepper, as well as some additional hot sauce and some black pepper, and I topped it all with bread crumbs mixed with melted butter before I put it in the oven. Without these things, I think the pasta may have been too bland. I loved the creaminess of this dish. I can't think of one way I could improve upon it. This is our new favorite pasta dish, and I can tell it's going to become a regular in our house. When I told Joe -- a self-professed hater of leftovers -- that we were having the rest of it tonight for dinner, he was actually happy -- and that's a real testament to how good this is!

Creamy Spinach Artichoke Pasta
Source: Recipezaar

12 ounces campanelle pasta (I used rigatoni)
1 (12 ounce) package cream cheese or neufchatel cheese (I used an 8-ounce block of cream cheese, which was plenty)
3/4 cup sour cream (increased to 1 cup)
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (I eyeballed it, but probably used about a teaspoon)
2 cups shredded swiss cheese
1 (13 3/4 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained, halved
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry
1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 cup breadcrumbs, mixed with melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Cook pasta according to directions, drain; return to pot; reserve.

3. In large bowl at medium speed beat cream cheese and sour cream until smooth; reduce speed to low; add milk, salt, garlic powder, black pepper and hot sauce.

4. Beat until combined, 30 seconds; stir in 1 1/2 cups swiss cheese, artichokes, spinach and roasted red pepper.

5. Pour over pasta; toss to combine.

6. Spoon pasta mixture into a shallow baking dish; sprinkle with remaining swiss cheese, parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.

7. Bake until heated through, 30 minutes. If desired, to brown cheese broil 1 minute.

Spinach Feta Strata

I had French bread left over from the soup I made earlier last week, and I thought a strata would be the perfect way to use it up. Unfortunately, by the time I thought of this yesterday afternoon, I didn't have enough time to refrigerate the strata for the entire 8 hours, but it was still delicious. I found this recipe in one of my trusty Taste of Home cookbooks, and I'll definitely make this again. It had great flavor and was very filling, and I think the roasted red pepper I added really worked well. Unless you're serving guests, though, I would suggest cutting this recipe at least in half, because this makes 12 servings and it just doesn't work for me as leftovers.


Spinach Feta Strata
Source: Taste of Home's Best of Country Breakfast and Brunch, also found on the Taste of Home website

10 slices French bread (1 inch thick) or 6 croissants, split
6 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups milk
1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 roasted red pepper, patted dry and chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 and 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1. In a greased 13 x 9-inch baking dish, arrange French bread or croissant halves with sides overlapping.

2. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, spinach, roasted red pepper, salt, nutmeg and pepper; pour over bread. Sprinkle with cheeses.

3. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

4. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm.

Shells Stuffed with Sausage, Spinach and Artichokes

Sometimes I surprise myself with how tasty some of my kitchen creations are. I don't just "make up" recipes very often; I usually use cookbooks or the internet and then add or change ingredients as I see fit.

That being said -- I don't know where I dreamed this recipe up, and I was surprised by how well it turned out. I think the idea for it started with the spinach artichoke dip I made a couple of weeks ago. I started thinking how good spinach and artichokes would be with pasta in a creamy cheesy sauce, but instead of just making a plain pasta dish, I decided to stuff some pasta shells. Hence, this creation.

I used a whole box of jumbo pasta shells and a large container of ricotta cheese, so I had a lot of both left over -- much more than just Joe and I could eat. I went ahead and made about half for us, then froze the other half for a future meal. I'll be interested to see how well they froze. (Incidentally, we loved this with sausage -- but ground chicken or turkey would probably be good in here too, and much more figure-friendly!)


Shells Stuffed with Sausage, Spinach and Artichokes
Source: Cassie

1 box jumbo pasta shells
1 pound Italian sausage
1 large container ricotta cheese
1 box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and drained
1 can quartered artichoke hearts, chopped
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cups milk
2 cups Italian-blend shredded cheese
3/4 cup parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta shells according to package directions, just to al dente; drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

2. Brown sausage in a medium skillet; remove from heat and let cool.

3. In a large bowl, combine ricotta cheese, spinach and artichokes. Add cooled sausage to mixture.

4. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. When butter is melted, stir in flour. Continue to stir and cook for one minute until flour is thoroughly combined. Add milk and cook until sauce begins to thicken. Add cheeses to sauce, along with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Stuff each shell with the ricotta mixture and place in a greased baking dish. Pour sauce over stuffed shells. Cover with aluminum foil and cook in a 350° oven until sauce begins to bubble, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

I've been meaning to post the recipes from the bachelorette party I hosted for about a week now, but who knew a seven-week-old would need so much attention? Sheesh! Andrew has been wearing me out lately, but he's fast asleep now so I finally found myself with a few minutes to spare. Both of my blogs have been sorely neglected lately, but hopefully that'll change soon.


Anyway, the party went really well. I think the bride-to-be had a really great time, and I know she appreciated all the hard work I put in to make sure that happened! Turns out, I made way too much food, but that's okay -- she didn't mind the leftovers! Here's the spread:


One of my co-workers made a fantastic spinach artichoke dip for the baby shower they had for me at work, so I asked her to share the recipe with me so I could make it for the party. I have no idea if this is her recipe or if she got it from somewhere, but wherever it came from, one thing is for sure: It's wonderful. I love spinach artichoke dip, anyway, but this one is especially good. My changes to her recipe are in purple.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Source: Kristy

1/2 teaspoon garlic

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup cream cheese

1/2 mozzarella cheese

1 14-ounce can artichoke harts, drained and finely sliced

1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Mix all ingredients until well mixed.

2. Spoon into a 9-inch pie plate or quiche dish. Top with additional mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

3. Bake 20 minutes or until heated through.