There are some weeks when I just don’t make it to the grocery store for a weekly grocery shop.  If I don’t go on Sunday, there’s a good chance I won’t make it any other day that week.  What makes these weeks particularly interesting at my house is dinnertime.  If I’ve worked all day and haven’t eaten dinner by 6:00 p.m., it’s safe to say I’m pretty hangry.  And this was precisely the case last Thursday.  Starving but not willing to eat fast food, I decided to run to the grocery store that’s one minute away from my house in search of something halfway decent and fast to cook or prepare for dinner.  Without much of a plan in mind I ended up buying a package of fresh spinach and ricotta stuffed ravioli in the dairy section that was on sale.   I figured I’d boil the ravioli and drizzle some olive oil on top and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

When I arrived home (hungrier than ever at this point) I realized I had no Parmesan cheese.  I did, however, have fresh grape tomatoes from my garden, shallot and butter.  While the ravioli boiled for 3 minutes, I thinly sliced half a shallot and halved my red and yellow tomatoes.  While the ravioli drained, I melted butter in the same pan I used to boil the ravioli and added the shallot and tomatoes and turned the heat up to medium-high.  I cooked the tomatoes until they were just ready to burst and immediately topped the ravioli with the tomato & shallot mixture and added salt & pepper.  I just realized I should’ve added some fresh basil from my garden as well.  If you have any cheese on hand, it could also be added to the ravioli.

Moral of the story: you can make a decent, fresh dinner for yourself in less than 5 minutes that won’t make you feel bad about yourself simply by being creative with what’s in your fridge.  If you’re like me and enjoy watching Chopped, this made me feel like a contestant on the show and cooking dinner was a lot of fun. Not only was my little ravioli meal delicious, I’ll make it again and add it to my dinner rotation. Let me know if you’d like to see more quick & easy recipes and feel free to post ingredient ideas!

Ingredients:
packaged ravioli
grape tomatoes (any veggie)
Shallot (or onion)
butter (or olive oil)
salt & pepper
optional: fresh basil; Parmesan cheese