Easy Baked Ravioli

When you need dinner in a flash, this satisfying pasta bake is ready in just under an hour, from freezer to table.

Baked ravioli is prepped in 10 minutes and ready to place in the oven. (iStock photo)

Happy National Ravioli Day! Yes, it’s a thing. Every year on March 20, foodies celebrate this simple Italian dumpling. Made with thin pasta dough and stuffed with just about anything—although cheese and finely ground meat are most popular—ravioli is ridiculously versatile and completely delicious. It’s usually boiled, but St. Louisans love their “toasted” (deep-fried) ravioli, too. I love a pan of baked ravioli for an easy weeknight family dinner.

Did you know ravioli’s origins go as far back as the 14th century? I had no idea! It’s credited to a merchant from the Tuscan province of Prato, Francesco di Marco Datini, and these early ravioli were stuffed with chopped greens and cheese, simmered in broth. Of course, ravioli has many culinary sisters; savory little pillows are found in Jewish, Chinese, and Indian cuisines.

In America, ravioli was mass produced in the 1930s under the Chef Boyardee brand of canned pastas. And yes, there was a real chef Hector Boiardi, an Italian immigrant who left his position as head chef at the Plaza Hotel in New York City to open his own restaurant in Ohio. Customers frequently asked Chef Boiardi for his spaghetti sauce, which he initially sold in milk bottles. In 1928, he opened a factory in Pennsylvania, grew his own tomatoes and mushroom for his ready-to-heat spaghetti kits, and changed the name for his new brand to Boy-ar-dee because Americans couldn’t pronounce it without help.

As a kid, all I knew was Chef Boyardee ravioli was a treat for lunch, and I loved it. Honestly, when I have a bad cold, I want canned pasta instead of chicken soup.

Happily, St. Louis has its own little ravioli factory in the Italian neighborhood known as The Hill. Mama Toscano’s started as a local grocery, Toscano’s Market, and during this time, the family decided to sell the family’s ravioli in the store, so Nana Kate was upstairs in her kitchen churning out the handmade pasta. Customers’ demand for the product grew to the point where the ravioli operation was moved to a larger space downstairs and help was hired to assist Nana. Today, ravioli is the main event, although there is a deli counter inside the building.

My mom always purchased ravioli from Mama Toscano’s, so naturally, that’s where I go. These little meaty or cheesy pillows are so tender and quick to prepare. I never make a trip to The Hill without swinging by.

This recipe for Baked Ravioli is so easy because it uses frozen pasta. Maybe 10 minutes to prep and about an hour to bake, it’s the perfect intersection of frozen food month and National Ravioli Day.

Easy Baked Ravioli

(Remember, freshly grated cheese is always the best choice.)

Ingredients

4 cups of homemade pasta sauce or 1 jar (about 25 ounces) of your favorite brand

1 package (about 27 ounces) of frozen cheese or meat ravioli (St. Louis cooks, that’s two 1-pound packages from Mama Toscano’s for a very full casserole)

2 cups shredded mozzarella

2 tablespoons grated cheese

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9-inch-by-13-inch casserole with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Spread about 3/4 of the pasta sauce in the baking dish. Place half the ravioli over sauce. Top with half of the remaining sauce and 1 cup of mozzarella. Repeat the layer once, starting again with frozen ravioli. Sprinkle top of Parmesan cheese.

3. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Easy Corned Beef Casserole

Like corned beef and cabbage, it’s not authentically Irish, but it’s completely delicious. And that’s no blarney.

Corned beef and egg noodles in a creamy sauce topped with potato chips; what's not to love?

St. Patrick’s Day is upon us, meaning it’s time we dug out everything green in our closets to wear, grab a six-pack of Guinness, and eat the one dish you won’t find in Ireland: corned beef and cabbage.

Americans—whether Irish by blood or just for the day—typically celebrate St. Patty’s by attending big parades or visiting a corner pub. But this year because of COVID (again), those large gatherings are not happening.

In my home city (St. Louis), one of our parades will be “virtual” this year (not sure how that’s going to be pulled off, but here's more info. In the city’s most Irish neighborhood, Dogtown, there’s no parade, but neighborhood pubs are doing reservations for limited gatherings, homes are decorated, and the beer and good times will be flowing.

And the corned beef will be carved. In fact, a quick poll of friends indicates corned beef and cabbage is part of everybody’s celebration. My friend, Julie, said in addition to the corned beef dinner, she's telling her little girl to put shoes out overnight so leprechauns can leave candy. She also teaches her about Irish ancestors.

But as any self-respecting Irish person will tell you, it’s not an authentic dish, but rather something 19th-century Irish immigrants put together with Jewish friends in New York’s ethnic neighborhoods. Corned beef and cabbage was cheaper than pork and potatoes. The bland vegetable also took on flavor from the salty, spiced beef. Once the foothold was made in NYC, the dish was picked up across the U.S.

What is corned beef, really?

It’s salt-cured brisket, a cut of beef that comes from around the chest of the animal. It’s typically tougher, requiring a low-and-slow method of cooking. The brine also tenderizes the brisket.

Next, point or flat cut brisket? In my grocer, it seemed point cut corned beef was stocked (at least the day I visited). This is a good choice for shredding the meat, and there’s typically more fat running through the cut. A flat cut, on the other hand, is better for slicing the corned beef and making sandwiches for later. It’s leaner, but there is a layer of fat on the bottom.

I’ve cooked both cuts in the past, with flat cut as a preference. But for this casserole, the point cut will work just fine.

No matter what cut you buy, though, the important tip to remember is to carve it against the grain.

How do I cook corned beef?

Whether you use a slow cooker, the oven, or your stove top, the key is patience because it will take a little while for this cut of meat to cook to tender perfection. I typically do either the stove top or the slow cooker. Tip: If you use the slow cooker, don’t put your cabbage and potatoes in at the beginning as they will turn mushy.

This time, I used my stove top, and followed recommended 50 minutes per pound instructions, cooking a 3½-pound corned beef in my Dutch oven for three hours. Cover the meat with liquid (you can use the juice from the corned beef package), open the little spice package, and add it to the pot. I also like to add two bay leaves and a couple cloves of garlic to mine. Tip: If you have beer, add a bottle to the pot, followed with tap water to cover your corned beef. Bring it to a boil, turn down to low simmer, cover and let the stove do the work!

So, I know you’re going to make corned beef next week and you will have leftovers. Should you be tired of the next-day Reuben sandwich (by the way, nothing wrong with that), remember this throwback casserole. It’s not really Irish, but it’s sure tasty.

Going old school

I’ve tweaked a recipe from my Mom’s vintage church cookbook. This thing has to be from the 1970s. The original calls for two cans of corned beef, but I’m not a fan of this product. There’s so much sodium; plus the dish just tastes so much better with corned beef you’ve cooked. Plus, when you use leftover corned beef, it’s easy to trim excess fat before cubing it for the casserole.

I also swapped out the ½ pound of Velveeta for 1 cup of shredded cheddar. If you want to add a little more cheese, no judgment here. And because my daughter hates green peppers, I left this ingredient out. A good swap here—if you are of the similar mind—would be frozen peas. Also recommend using the low-fat/low-sodium cream of mushroom soup.

Another thing I changed was adding one clove of minced garlic. It cooks up, but brings added depth, as do the little caraway seeds. Remember, this bakes in the oven for an hour, so cook the noodles to just al dente; just cut back a minute or two on the package instructions. I love it when some of the noodles go golden and bit crispy around the edges. So good!

So, yeah, corned beef and cabbage dinners were a part of my childhood, and we often had this casserole later in the week following St. Patty’s. The other memory I have of this holiday goes back to our time in the College Hill neighborhood on the city’s North Side. There was a tavern—I can’t remember the name—somewhere on Ferry Street not far from our house. Every St. Patrick’s Day, the proprietor put an open coffin with a skeleton dressed in a black suit with pennies over the eyes. Whenever I passed this on the street, I was attracted to and creeped out by it!

I didn’t realize it at the time, but we lived north of what historically was the city’s first Irish neighborhood called Kerry Patch. The first Irish St. Patty’s parade was here in 1820. It was a complicated neighborhood, and it’s fascinating to read about. It’s also a shame that evidence of Kerry Patch has disappeared; gone are the churches, businesses, homes.

If you’d like to ready more about St. Louis and its Irish history, I recommend this book by William Faherty, who was a Jesuit priest and noted local historian.

And so friends, I leave you with this Irish toast: May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you're dead. Happy St. Pat's Day!

Friday night fish fry at home

This menu has everything for a traditional Lenten dinner you can enjoy without leaving the house.

Fried cod and my family's zingy cole slaw are the stars of this fish fry plate.

If it was a Friday in March, there was no question where my mother would be. You’d find her and about a dozen other ladies in the basement kitchen of Trinity United Church of Christ on South Grand Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. While Mom was in the kitchen, Dad and his buddies manned the room for take out orders.

The church has since moved to a suburbs, and my folks and most of their friends are now gone, but oh, the Lenten fish dry dinners they created! These weekly meals fed church members and the wider Dutchtown community, while nourishing friendships that my folks carried on for years.

The menu never really varied; you had a choice of fried cod or jack salmon, mac ‘n’ cheese or spaghetti in red sauce, green beans, and our family’s own recipe for coleslaw. To this day, I can picture the cafeteria line and people holding trays waiting for a plate packed with great food. As a teen, I—and other youth group friends—bussed tables. Good times. Good memories.

And that’s one of the best attributes of food; it connects our memories to present day. Whenever I attend a fish fry, my body might be at Sacred Heart Catholic Church near my house, but my mind is back to Trinity on South Grand and I’m 14 years old again.

What’s Lent and what does fish have to do with it?

A Christian observance, Lent lasts for 40 days (not counting Sundays) that begins on Ash Wednesday and continues through Holy Saturday. Some Christian traditions really focus on fasting and “giving up something for Lent,” while others concentrate more on baptism vows, self-examination, and reflection. It’s a time for repentance and preparation for Easter.

Roman Catholic communities require its members to abstain from eating flesh meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays during Lent. It seems traditions of long ago allowed fish to be eaten, maybe because of the symbolism found in the early years of the church.

At any rate, when Catholic immigrants came to the United States—especially in Midwestern states like Wisconsin and Ohio where there is an abundance of good, local fish—fish fry dinners started popping up around the 1920s. Some stories point to Prohibition playing a part in the fish fry popularity. Local taverns, to stay afloat, served these inexpensive meals for Lent-observing Christian friends.

It didn’t take long for churches across the country to realize they could turn this tradition into a fundraiser, and it didn’t matter if the church was of the Catholic or Protestant persuasion. The good old American fish fry was here to stay.

It was interesting to me that a colleague on the West Coast, however, had never heard of a fish fry. I had to explain to her what it was all about and how my city (like many others) regularly updates where the dinners can be found and calls out what’s special about the various locations. It’s like a pub crawl but with fish, not beer, although some Catholic churches and VFW halls serve alcohol at their dinners. She was fascinated, and asked me several weeks in a row what fish fry I’d be visiting.

This year, COVID has put a big damper on the fish fry fire, but you can make tasty fried fish at home with all the sides. Heck, follow up dinner with a game of family bingo if you’re feeling particularly nostalgic for a church gathering.

How to cook up your own fish fry

Start with a good piece of fish. In the Midwest, cod is the most popular for a fish fry. This fish has white flesh with large flakes. Most of the time, you’ll find this fish cleaned and filleted, ready to cook. If purchasing fresh to take home and cook right away, look for firm flesh that’s either translucent or light pink in color. It should not have a strong odor.

Frozen fillets are super convenient. Look for the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) seal to ensure it has been sustainably harvested. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) recommends you inspect packages for any tears or crushed edges. Avoid packages that have evidence of ice crystals because it could have thawed and refrozen. Obviously, you shouldn’t be able to bend a package of frozen fish. Personally, I like to see the fish inside a package because I’ve purchased frozen fish without this visual element only to come home to tiny, thin fillets.

After good fish, you need a good batter (something with some flavor that will stick well to the fish). The above recipe comes from Diane Wiggins, former St. Louis Globe-Democrat food editor. If you follow the Kitchen’s Facebook page, you recognize this recipe that was featured in a cookbook, Food Editors' Hometown Favorites, from 1984. In the cookbook, Diane mentioned this was her mother's (Dorothy Raab) recipe.

I made this recipe to fry cod earlier this month and it turned out well. The beer and garlic powder gives the batter a good flavor but doesn’t overpower the delicate cod. However, a friend of mine commented that “no one fries in oil anymore” and asked if this could be used in an air fryer. I referred her to a recipe by Meredith Laurence (Blue Jean Chef), in which Meredith mentions battered foods can be a challenge in an air fryer, but the trick is to dredge it in flour after the batter.

Instead of Meredith's recipe, however, I tried one from Taste of Home's website. I tweaked it slightly, swapping crushed cornflakes for Panko bread crumbs and omitting 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese, replacing it with garlic powder. If your fillet is thin, turn the fryer down to 375 degrees.

You’re going to need sides for your at-home fish fry. To keep with tradition, if you choose spaghetti, do a meatless marinara (it is Friday, after all), but mac ‘n’ cheese or french fries work beautifully.

My family’s zingy coleslaw will take the plate to the next level. I give this recipe that once was guarded by the Trinity church ladies to the world! I know you’ll love it.

In the end, a fish fry—whether at a church hall or around your kitchen table—is as much about fellowship as it is the food, so savor the time together and have fun.

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Looking for more meatless dinner ideas?

Try this pasta dish with roasted butternut squash or chocolate pasta with mushrooms. This pasta dish features shrimp and orzo.