toasted ravioli with goat cheese & pesto

I'll begin by thanking my Mother in Law, Arlene, for my first blog meal.  She is always sending me magazines in the mail that have great recipes, but this one really takes the cake.  I never heard of "Cook's Country" before she sent this one to me, but I am definitely going to look into buying a subscription (as long as I can find a promo code for it --- more to come on my coupon obsession in future posts.)  Anyway, the issue of the magazine I have includes a recipe for old-fashioned mac n cheese, slow cooker french onion soup, Italian skillet chicken with orzo, and chicken cordon bleu.  Mmmm!

The one that most caught our eye was the toasted ravioli with goat cheese & pesto, so we thought we'd give it a try:

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. unsalted butter

2 (9 oz.) packages fresh cheese ravioli (we used Buitoni brand)

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup basil pesto ( we used the refrigerated Buitoni one.  Don't use the shelf-stable kind... it won't taste right)

1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese

3 plum tomatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

Salt & pepper

1. Place oven rack on highest position and heat broiler on high.

2. In large nonstick skillet, melt butter over med-high heat.

3. Add ravioli and cook.  Stir occasionally until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes.

4. Stir in broth and cream and cook, covered, until ravioli are tender.

5. Remove lid and cook until sauce is slightly thickened and ravioli are completely tender, about 3 mins.

6. Remove skillet from heat and stir in pesto & 1/4 cup of the goat cheese.

7. Transfer to broiler-safe 1 1/2 quart casserole dish and arrange tomatoes over ravioli, then season with salt & pepper.

8. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and broil until golden brown, about 4 mins.  Serve.

Super delish!  We gobbled it up, and had plenty left that we enjoyed it again for dinner the next day.  When we decide to make this again, which we definitely will, I will use regular cream instead of heavy to make it a bit lighter, I'll make my own homemade pesto, and may also attempt to make fresh ravioli.  We'll see how motivated I am to do that :)  Next up, Italian Skillet Chicken with Toasted Orzo.  Yum!