Baked Creamy Pesto Ravioli

I have an herb garden outside my kitchen door and it produces copious amounts of just about any herb I plant. I am aware that sounds braggadocious, but that is not my intent. In fact, I think allowing me to grow large amounts of herbs is God’s way of reassuring me that I can do it, that I CAN grow things, despite my best efforts. I have been blessed with a serious brown thumb. Over the years, I have waded further and further out into the murky waters of more serious gardening. I have great hopes of one day turning a small backyard herb garden into a homestead garden large enough to provide and sustain my family.

Baked Creamy Pesto Ravioli is a quick and easy meal that is ready and on the table in less in a flash! This will become a family favorite!

I love basil, so that was the first herb I chose to grow years ago. In fact, it was my first really successful, edible plant. It is a hearty plant. It smells wonderful, is beautiful to look at and tastes great. I loved it so much, that I planted way too much and was overrun with it. My bounty!! I froze it, cooked with it, ate it in salads and made pesto. With that first batch of pesto, I made tons of recipes, including this family favorite for Baked Creamy Pesto Ravioli.

Making pesto is pretty simple. It does help to have a bunch of pesto at your disposal, hello backyard bounty! It is a herbaceous sauce that originated in Italy. It gets its name from pesta or pestare, which means to pound or crush. I use my food processor or blender when making pesto. Years ago, they used a mortar and pestle in which they had to pound and crush the items that I now just toss in my blender.

Baked Creamy Pesto Ravioli is tender ravioli, layered and baked in a creamy pesto sauce and topped with parmesan and melted mozzarella. Divine!!

I keep my eyes open for sales on ravioli. It can be bought fresh in the deli section or frozen in bags. I find that frozen ravioli is more convenient for me. I buy several bags at a time and either make our other favorite Baked Ravioli Casserole, made with Homemade Spaghetti Sauce or this Baked Creamy Pesto Ravioli. We love Italian, but this is such a quick and easy meal, that it finds itself on the weekly rotation of my meal planner often. Oh and leftover, fuggedaboutit!! We fight over it!

To make this Baked Creamy Pesto Ravioli, you can choose to buy your pesto or make it from scratch. You will then place the pesto into a sauce pan and add heavy cream, salt and pepper. Stir occasionally and heat until bubbly. Place your ravioli of choice into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish and pour half of the pesto sauce over the top of the ravioli and toss. Then sprinkle parmesan cheese and mozzarella over this and then repeat with another layer of ravioli, sauce, parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Now pop it in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

This recipe for Baked Creamy Pesto Ravioli is one you can personalize. I like quite a bit of black pepper in my pesto, so I often add more. If you like a stronger pesto flavor, you can choose to add more pesto than is listed in the recipe. One thing is for sure, the smell of this cooking will bring your family to the kitchen asking when dinner will be ready. I like that this recipe can be made from scratch or is one in which you can utilize conveniences such as, prepared pesto. These shortcuts help speed things up for busy weeknight meals. Whip up a batch of this ravioli and I bet you will find it on your dinner table quite often. Enjoy friends!

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