Re: Canned ravioli but better

Locrian writes about using more tomatoes to improve ravioli.

Nice!

I like to run canned diced tomatoes in the microwave for 10 minutes, that makes them super concentrated and umami-riffic. I have a duty-cycling 1000w microwave oven. I use 2m40s on 80% then 7m30s on 30%. You def don’t want them to boil over so when you’re first starting out with this recipe, use lower times and try out what’s perfect for your own microwave oven. The crucial value is the first time period on 80 (or on 100% if you have an 800w), if that’s too long, it’ll boil over.

Do not put the can in there, I use a clean glass jar (being super careful taking it out because it gets hot. I use a terry cloth towel). Also let it cool before cleaning it or it might shatter.

Often I have dried lovage (or fresh basil) and one minced clove of garlic in with it, sometimes black pepper. This gets super weak in the garlic depr but that’s by design. For a stronger garlic taste, use more or put it in later.

I then reduce them further on the stove top, adding it to pretty-much-done sautéd stuff: onions, mushrooms, sometimes TSP. I crank the stove up at this point.

Lastly if I want to add some beans, which I keep pre-boiled in the fridge, I do that last. Stir in some pasta water and then stir in the pasta and ship it.

Update

Locrian had a follow-up.

> The way my brain works, taking an easy meal like canned ravioli and dressing it up seems like way less work than assembling all the ingredients, even if using boxed or bagged ravioli wouldn’t really make much of a difference.

Yeah.♥︎ You’re right. I just got inspired to write down my tomato reduction steez.

I often (not always) like to cook from more simple ingredients, which saves money, shelf-life, and planning, but does cost time (and now when I have a job I guess that means I lose money if I spend time cooking instead of working).

Shopping seldomly (without meal-planning)