Wednesday, February 22, 2012

La Romanella Oven Toasted Ravioli #LaRomanella Recipe

La Romanella Oven Toasted Ravioli
serves 4
1/2 bag La Romanella precooked frozen medium cheese ravioli (approx. 40 ravioli)
1/2 28 0z can La Romanella marinara sauce
3 eggs beaten
4 Tablespoons water
1/2 cup La Romanella Seasoned Bread Crumbs
2 cups First Street Panko Bread Crumbs
4 Tablespoons La Romanella Shredded Parmesan Cheese
Vegetable spray

Preheat oven to 450 f. Place a wire rack on a baking sheet and spray with vegetable spray. Boil a pot of water, when it begins to boil, put raviolis in stirring lightly to separate. Leave in water with heat still on for 2 minutes, drain. Rinse gently in cold water and shake colander to separate raviolis and to remove excess water. In shallow bowl, beat 3 eggs with 4 tablespoons of water. On a dinner plate, mix together both kinds of bread crumbs and shredded parmesan cheese.
Start you 3 step assembly line by taking a cooled ravioli, dipping it in the egg, and dredging it through the bread crumb mixture and placing on the wire rack. Tip: You may find that you will want to repeat the egg dip and dredge process once to allow the coating to cover the ravioli. Bake for 15 minutes or until crispy. Serve with hot marinara sauce for dipping.

One of my favorite dishes is Toasted Ravioli and I always order it at my favorite restaurant back home. Traditional Toasted Ravioli is fried. Frying is one thing I try to avoid doing. Not that I don’t love fried food…I just don’t like dealing with the cooking and the mess part of it! Whenever I can, I try to recreate the fried effect in my oven. I find that red sauce Italian food is particularly easy for this because breadcrumbs toast up nicely and flavorful sauces are the main focus of the dishes.

I was invited to participate in a campaign for Smart & Final for their La Romanella line of products. I love the La Romanella line, especially love the fact that some of their offerings are organic. Creating a recipe was my main task so I set about looking at all the offerings at my local Smart & Final. I found the items generally categorized in specific areas. Produce had sundried tomatoes and fresh basil, refrigerated/dairy had cheese and sliced meats. The main grocery aisles had pasta and sauces together. The freezer section had frozen pasta and bread and finally, in separate grocery sections I located olive oil and bread crumbs. While I was in the store, an employee told me that La Romanella products vary by location.

It seems that no matter how much I try to plan my day, I end up having the kids with me when I shop and underfoot when I try to cook. My goals were to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible and to have a recipe that would require minimum ingredients. I gave myself extra points for a recipe that could be prepared earlier in the day to be put in the oven just before meal time and one that easily allowed for leftovers. I do believe I checked off all of the above with my plan to make Oven Toasted Ravioli. I started in the refrigerator section where I picked up a bag of parmesan cheese, next I went to the freezer and got a bag of frozen ravioli. The aisle straight from the freezer shelf with the ravioli were the La Romanella bread crumba and The First Street Panko Bread Crumbs. I doubled back and pushed the cart, loaded with the kids, two aisles and pointed back to the front of the store stopping to grab a can of Marinara Sauce. I kept going and hit the check out, loaded the minivan and hit the gas. Everything else I needed, I already had at home. I have a Google+ photo album describing my trip, please take a look!

When you purchase La Romanella items from Smart & Final, you can go to www.smartandfinal.com/LaRomanella2012 between now and March 6, 2012, enter the code on your receipt with the purchase of La Romanella products. You will be entered to win some fabulous prizes! First Prize: a weekend trip to one of the most luxurious Italian inspired resorts in Las Vegas! Additional prizes include: (8) $50 SmartCash cards (2 per week given away) and (8) La Romanella Gift Baskets worth over $50 (2 per week given away. Also, when you are there, click the “recipes” button and you can vote for your favorite La Romanella blogger recipe!


This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for #collectivebias #CBias. All content is my own.

1 comment:

Amy @ The Mom Hood said...

I've tried to make the deep-fried toasted ravioli at home and ended up with a big ol' mess. This sounds much easier, and a lot healthier!