Inside out ravioli?
My husband really likes my homemade spaghetti. It is kind of ironic that I seem to make it well, since I’m not that fond of tomato based dinners. However, add some cheese ravioli and I’m very happy.
I do make my spaghetti sauce with my home grown and home canned tomatoes. I also add some of the dried tomatoes to give it flavor. I don’t have a recipe for that here yet, so I’ll have to work on that. but meanwhile…
Unfortunately ravioli is very time consuming to make and I prefer to steer away from pre-packaged dinners. This cheese noodle casserole comes very close to ravioli with your typical spaghetti sauce. Inside out ravioli, if you will.
The recipe
I don’t remember where I got the recipe that I modified to make this. But this is how I do it now. You can see that if you have leftover spaghetti sauce, it is super easy!
- one 1 pound box of farfalle (bow ties) pasta, cooked and drained
- 8 ounces of cream cheese, hopefully softened
- 1½ cups sour cream
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 6 cups of spaghetti meat sauce, mine has mushrooms and olives in it
While the noodles are cooking, mix the cream cheese and sour cream together. If the cream cheese stays a bit lumpy, that is okay.
Mix in the cooked and drained pasta, plus 1 teaspoon of sea salt.
In a 9 by 13 inch baking dish, begin the layering with one third of the noodle-cheese mixture. Each spaghetti sauce layer should be about 2 cups. End with the last layer of spaghetti sauce.
Now, simply put in the oven until all is heated through to the desired temperature. That takes about 30 minutes in my oven.
Who likes it?
Everyone! My spaghetti loving husband, my 4 year old granddaughter, my teenage granddaughter, and me! It makes great leftovers in its own right, too.
I might try adding other cheese to the mix in the future. Like mozzarella. There is no rule you have to make a recipe the same way every time.
It doesn’t look fancy, but it doesn’t get much easier than this to make a yummy, filling dinner! Of course, don’t forget your green veggies.
