When I make pasta, the meal is on the table in less than 30 minutes. I don’t go all crazy simmering marinara sauce for hours—who has time for that? But I do make my own marinara sauce with ground beef and sometimes Italian sausage!
This is kind of like a “Grandma recipe.” It is a home-cooked meal that isn't fancy and is easy to make. I have a list of ingredients with the amounts I use and a list of seasonings.
You choose how much seasonings to use according to your taste. That is the way it should be, right? I have instructions for you with step-by-step photos.
When you're a working Mom or an old retired lady, you make dinner the easy way. This is it, and everyone will love this meal, especially the kids.
Cheese Ravioli with Marinara Sauce and Cheesy Garlic Bread
Servings: 2 (double for a family of 4)
Prep plus cook time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
12-14 ounces frozen cheese ravioli
¼ lb ground beef
¼ lb ground Italian sausage (or use only ground beef)
1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
1 package of spaghetti sauce dry mix
Italian seasoning or Herbs de Province, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste
Salt, to taste
4 slices of Italian bread
Butter, softened
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Black Peppercorns
Instructions for the sauce:
Brown the ground beef and the Italian sausage and pour the grease from the pan.
Add the can of tomato sauce and ½ of the spaghetti sauce mix package.
Add a bit of garlic powder and a dash of the Italian seasonings, but don’t overdo it. You can add more later if needed.
Add water and simmer until the sauce is the consistency you like. It should not be too watery or runny. As the sauce simmers, it will get thicker.
Taste the sauce and add more seasonings as needed.
Simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
note: The packaged sauce mix helps to thicken the sauce, but I don't like to add much of the mix because the taste is off to me. That is why I like to add garlic powder and Italian seasonings to suit my taste buds.
Instructions for the frozen ravioli:
Heat a pot of water to boiling. The water should be deep enough to cover and cook the amount of ravioli you will be serving.
Add the frozen pasta. I made two servings and cooked 16-18 ravioli.
Cook according to package directions for the time. Our pasta wasn’t as done as we like it so I would cook longer until it is fork tender.
Instructions for the bread:
Cut the Italian bread into 1 or 11/2 inch slices and place on baking sheet.
Spread with butter.
Sprinkle with garlic powder and crushed peppercorns according to your taste.
Sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese.
Broil on high until brown.
Put it all together:
Arrange the ravioli on the plate and cover with marinara sauce. Grab a piece or two of bread and enjoy!
I bought the frozen ravioli at Aldi. I didn't cook the whole bag for me and the hubby. This bag should be large enough for Mom, Dad, and two kids.
I prefer Italian bread over French bread. I think it has to do with the density.
When buying packaged spaghetti sauce, check the ingredients list. If sugar is the first ingredient, select another brand. I don't like sweet-tasting sauce.
I happened to have a bit of leftover ground Italian sausage in the freezer, so that is why I used half sausage and half ground beef. Normally, I only use ground beef, and it is up to you how much to use. You may not even like meat in your sauce!
If a lot of grease cooks out of the meat when browning it then pour off the grease before combining all of the sauce ingredients.
As I mentioned earlier, I would cook the ravioli longer than the bag instructions.
To make my fancy cheesy garlic bread I slice the bread into the thickness we prefer then spread with butter. You can use mayo instead of butter if you prefer.
Then, grind peppercorns over the butter and sprinkle with garlic powder and the parmesan cheese.
Brown the bread in a toaster oven or regular oven. Since there are only two of us we use our small toaster oven a lot.
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Dish it up and enjoy!
Cheese Ravioli with Marinara Sauce and Cheesy Garlic Bread
Author: Recipe Idea Shop
Equipment
- 1 pot
Ingredients
- 14 ounces Frozen cheese ravioli
- ¼ lb ground beef
- ¼ lb ground Italian sausage
- 1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
- 1 package of spaghetti sauce dry mix
- Italian seasoning, to taste
- Garlic powder, to taste
- salt, to taste
- 4 slices Italian bread
- butter, softened
- grated Parmesan Cheese
- Black Peppercorns
Instructions
Instructions for the sauce:
- Brown the ground beef and Italian sausage and pour grease from pan.
- Add the can of tomato sauce and ½ package of the spaghetti sauce mix.
- Add a bit of garlic powder, and a dash of the Italian seasonings but don’t overdo it. You can add more later if needed.
- Bring to a slow simmer and add water until the sauce is the consistency you like. It should not be too watery or runny. As the sauce simmers it will get thicker.
- Taste the sauce and add more seasonings as needed.
- Simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
Instructions for the frozen ravioli:
- Heat a pot of water to boiling. The water should be deep enough to cover and cook the amount of ravioli you will be serving.
- Add the frozen pasta. I made two servings and cooked 16-18 ravioli.
- Cook according to package directions as far as the time. Our pasta wasn’t as done as we like it so I would cook longer until the pasta is fork tender.
Instructions for the bread:
- Cut the Italian bread into 1 or 11/2 inch slices and place on baking sheet.
- Spread with softened butter.
- Sprinkle with garlic powder and crushed peppercorns according to your taste.
- Sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese.
- Broil on high until brown.
Put it all together:
- Place ravioli on the plate and cover with marinara sauce. Grab a piece or two of bread!
Nutrition (may vary depending on ingredients and amounts used)
Kathy Owen
My family loved this!