Eggplant Ravioli

Here's the recipe I am planning to have tomorrow when my company comes. When I was in Italy, I had a wonderful dish of Eggplant Ravioli at some small restaurant. That was one of my all-time best meals EVER. I looked for years for a recipe for Eggplant Ravioli. I did find one, but it was really difficult. You had to make the raviolis by hand.

I had finally given up, and happened on this recipe in a magazine. (I am sorry, but I have had the recipe for years, and I didn't cut out the reference information for it. It does have calorie information and amounts for protein, fat, fiber, etc. so it might be Southern Living magazine, but that is just a guess.)

This recipe is almost as good as the meal I had in Italy, and the directions are really easy.

The eggplants I am using are from my garden. 

This is the meal before I cooked it. (I'll cook it tomorrow, once

my guests get here.)

Eggplant Ravioli


Vegetable Cooking Spray
2 t olive oil
1/2 pound eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2- 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce
2 T sliced ripe olives
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 t dried thyme (I'll use fresh tomorrow, since I have so much thyme growing in the yard.)
1 t to 1 T of fresh oregano
2   packages of refrigerated cheese-filled ravioli, uncooked.
3 T grated Parmesan cheese

Coat a large nonstick pan with cooking spray. Add olive oil, and place over medium high heat. Add eggplant, onion, and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in tomato sauce, ripe olives, vinegar and thyme. Remove skillet from heat.

Cook ravioli according to package directions. Drain. Rinse with cold water, and drain. Toss with vegetable mixture and place in 1 1/2 quart shallow baking dish.  Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

What a great soup!

I am not one to post recipes on my blog very often. There are lots of other sites out there for that. But I have been eating soups pretty regularly for awhile now. I had some Lima beans in the fridge that I needed to eat up. The rest of my family are not really fans of Lima beans. So, I decided to see if there were any good Lima bean soup recipes online.

I tend to make my soups in the morning when I have more time and energy and the kids are happy to play with each other. Then I refrigerate them and eat them for lunch or supper. That's why I made this soup at nine in the morning. =D>


I found this recipe http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1948,152184-242205,00.html

I modified it this way.

I put 2 tablespoons of butter in a hot pan. Then added finely chopped onion (about 1/2 of a large onion.) When the onions were translucent, I threw in 1/3 cup of the cream of ... soup mix I use instead of cans of cream soup and then added 1 and 1/3 cups of water. I stirred it while it thickened, about 5 minutes.

Then I threw in all the Lima beans I had (about the amount that 2  14-ounce cans would produce.). I added curry powder to taste. I added pepper, but no salt since everything had already been salted. When I tasted it, I thought a little turmeric would add a nice color and flavor. I threw in a pinch of that. I heated it through, about 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

Then I used my immersion blender to mix everything well.

Then I tasted and almost swooned. That is probably one of the best soups I have ever eaten!! (If I do say so myself.)

Because my "friend" at Life in a Shoe just posted her desire for our best bean/lentil recipes with extra points to those whose recipes are vegetarian, I want to add a link to her site. Here you go.
http://inashoe.com/2011/05/linky-time-i-want-your-best-beanlentil-recipe/