Recipe

Hey, nice job with the blog so far. I like seeing other people post things. I'll put up the vacation pictures soon, Brad, but I want to put this on here first. This is a recipe I've wanted to share with someone for a while, so here it is... This is Cheese Ravioli and Fresh Vegetables from Olive Garden. Olive Garden has a really cool website with tons of recipes. The only thing with their recipes, though, is that almost all of them have 8 gallons of heavy cream and 6 kegs of olive oil. I went through and chose a few that were healthier--meaning no cream. This one is really good--we have it all the time. I don't follow the directions exactly, so I put my variations in blue.


Cheese Ravioli and Fresh Vegetables

Ingredients:

1 lb mini round cheese ravioli, cooked according to package directions
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (I use like 1 Tbsp. It's only to brown veggies, so I don't use much)
1 clove fresh garlic, chopped (I usually don't add this--we don't eat a lot of garlic.)
2 7-oz jars roasted red peppers, sliced in strips (I don't add this either.)
1 whole, medium fresh zucchini, sliced in half moons (This is the best part! We add lots of this.)1/2 cup black olives, sliced
1 cup chicken broth
Grated Parmesan to taste
Fresh chopped parsley for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper


Procedures:

HEAT olive oil over medium heat in saucepan. Add roasted red pepper strips, zucchini moons, garlic and black olives. Cook while stirring for 2 minutes or until the zucchini reaches desired texture. Add chicken broth and let sauce simmer for 2 minutes. Season with salt and cracked black pepper to taste. (I have been adding about a teaspoon or so of corn starch to the sauce to make it thicker. Just the broth and oil is pretty runny, so I try to thicken it to help it stick to the ravioli.) DRAIN cooked ravioli well. Toss ravioli in a small amount of olive oil to prevent sticking. Add cooked ravioli to sauce. Blend well, allowing sauce to cover ravioli. PLACE sauced ravioli on serving plate. Top with grated Parmesan cheese and parsley.