REDNECK LASAGNA

Defiantly inelegant, this dish will warm you up on a cold day and is more versatile than most. It can go from plain and cozy to high-fallutin’ badassery. Just like us.

Okay, y’all. Sometimes we are just flat out worn down by the world and don’t have the time to make EVERYTHING from scratch. So here you are, beaten by work and chilled to the bone and hungry as hell. Well. If you have frozen ravioli, cheese, and some sort of pasta sauce: you’ve got this.

Y’all know I look at cooking as magic. There’s some basic immovable rules—but past that, you need to carefully learn the culinary ropes for your ownself. This recipe allows for that kind of exploration as a sybarite! The following is the basic how-to. You add the rest:

2 packages frozen ravioli (ANY variety, feel free to mix it up)
1 jar pasta sauce (same rule as above)
1 16 oz. package shredded cheese (you know the drill by now)

Grease a casserole dish with olive oil or butter. Splatter a bit of sauce on the bottom and spread out as a base. Layer frozen ravioli back to back on the bottom. NOW:

Here’s where I got creative. I took ricotta cheese, about a cup or so, and whipped an egg, a 1/4 cup of parmesan and a smidge of salt and pepper all in it until fluffy. Then, I layered it across the frozen ravioli. Next, I sautéd up some mushrooms and onions in a little olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and slathered that on top of the ricotta mixture. Next, I browned up some ground free-range bison with a tablespoon or so of fresh oregano (you would want to lower that to a teaspoon if dried) and minced garlic. Yup. That was drained and went on top of the mushrooms. Whew! Then, I covered the meat mixture with a healthy helping of mozzarella. On top of that, I layered more frozen ravioli nice and even and poured my sauce (tomato and basil) over the whole shebang until thoroughly covered.

I baked that about 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees, but do not go by that! My oven could be different than yours. Double check on it at about 25-30 minutes and look for slightly browning edges. If it’s happening, move on to the next step instead of waiting too long.

Finally, I pulled the whole thing back out and scattered mozzarella over that sauce. It went back in until slightly browned and melted. (I did this to assure that my cheese didn’t burn while cooking all the goodies.) All done!

Word of caution: let this set. It will fall apart otherwise. Wait until the pan can be handled without an oven mitt. Drizzle extra sauce at will, especially if you like extra, and freeze the leftovers for your next crappy day.

Now, that’s what I did. You can do whatever you like! You can skip the meat, switch the ricotta for cottage cheese (I hear some of y’all do that), add spinach or shaved carrots, roasted peppers, or what may have you! It’s really just about the layering—and the only critical steps are already there: get that casserole greased up proper, plop that ravioli down on top of a light bed of sauce, give it a filling, plop more, cover with some sort of sauce and cheese, bake. I made one once with parmesan, portabellas, shredded chicken and Alfredo sauce—so freaking good. Do you, witch! Let me know how it turns out in the comments.

Love y’all,
Seba

*Note: you may have leftover frozen ravioli left over. Plop that back in the fridge for another night.