Like my mother and grandmother, whenever I make fresh homemade ravioli I always make more than for just one meal. It’s an awful lot of work for just a meal, so while the pasta machine is out and the ingredients are flowing it doesn’t take much more effort to make enough for a rainy day.

Unlike my mother and grandmother, I have developed a technique as to not have to lay out the fresh ravioli on a bed to dry out, avoiding a disasterous accident of sleeping on the ravioli and ruining them as my brother and I have.

As the first batch of ravioli come off the assembly line, I lay them out on a large cookie sheet sprinkled with flour and cornmeal so they will not stick. I then place them all in a single layer into my freezer and freeze them solid and then pack them into zip lock bags and store them until I’m ready to cook them for a meal.

These are the ravioli I’m using for this simple recipe. A little work on the front end will produce an easy meal up the road at the back end. I have already made two meals out of my frozen ravioli in addition to the fresh ravioli meal I made when I first put them together. Three meals out of one cooking session is not all that bad.

My original recipe for homemade ricotta ravioli was published on a previous blog of August 1st.

So assuming you already made the ravioli and now have a two pound bag of frozen ravioli in the freezer, or a bag of frozen or fresh ravioli from the store here is a simple way of making them for a quick dinner. Just add a salad and you’re good to go.

Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce

• 1 pound of fresh or frozen cheese ravioli

For the Sauce:

• 1/2 stick of salted butter
• 7-8 fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped
• 2 fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano
• Black pepper to taste
• 2-3 tablespoons of pasta water

In a large pot bring 5 quarts of water to a boil. Add a tablespoon of salt to the water.

Place the frozen or fresh ravioli into the boiling water and gently give them a stir.

In the meantime, melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the chopped sage and basil and shake to mix. Cook the butter till it turns a light brown. This will give  a delicious nutty flavor to the sauce. Don’t burn it.

Take a couple of tablespoons of the pasta water and stir into the butter mixture. This will add some moisture to the sauce.

After about 7 minutes the ravioli are ready. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and place into the sage butter mixture. Toss to coat the ravioli well.

Remove from the heat and add the grated cheese. 

Add some black pepper and serve immediately.