Sunday, September 29, 2013

Ravioli with Sauteed Spinach & Sausage

There's something about fall that makes me want to be more intentional about food.  I love fall foods and flavors, and some of my favorite recipes are autumnal.  Maybe this desire to think more about what we're eating as the weather cools will remind me to post more often on this blog!

Sunday lunch is always a little tricky for me.  We don't get home from church until 12:30 or so, and we're hungry.  We don't want to have to spend a lot of time or effort on getting a meal ready, but we also actually have time to sit down and enjoy it so we want a good meal.  Today we celebrated the Sabbath with the last of our Trader Joe's bounty from last fall (I know, it's been in the freezer for a year - not ideal).  Those who have a TJ's nearby will be able to recreate this meal a little easier than those (like us) who don't.  We were some of the few who received a blessing from Superstorm Sandy last fall, when a truckload of TJ's foods was delivered to tiny Kalona, IA rather than the East Coast stores it was supposed to supply.  Then, because the Kalona store didn't have the space to keep the food on the shelves for long, everything was marked down to 50-90% off.  We used most of the food pretty quickly, but I stuck some things in the freezer and today we pulled out the last package of pumpkin ravioli.

Let me preface this by saying that there is no real "recipe" for this meal.  I'm not going to give you amounts, cook times, etc. because this is kind of a "wing-it" one.  That being said, it's super easy.  I start by putting the ravioli in boiling water to cook.  It only takes a couple of minutes, so chop some kielbasa and spinach while the ravioli boils.  Put the sausage and spinach in a skillet to saute, and when the ravioli is cooked, lift it out of the water with a slotted spoon and add it to the skillet.  This lets the outside get a little crispy.  When the spinach is wilted and the sausage & ravioli are getting browned, it's done.



I'm sure this would be good with any kind of ravioli, but we especially like the veggie-based ones: pumpkin, sweet potato, butternut squash, mushroom, etc.  I'm definitely going to be looking at our local grocery stores for more ravioli now that all our TJ's stock is gone!