Dinner tonight is going to be simple and delicious! It is also going to be a quick fix dinner. We are having cheese ravioli with vegetarian marinara sauce and a nice big salad. On Friday I made eggplant parmesana, chicken parmesana, and fettuccini topped with vegetable marinara sauce. It was scrumptious and I made a double batch of sauce just so we could use it tonight.
I have been very busy planting my vegetable garden. I am almost done, so hopefully tonight after work I will be able to plant the last few beds. That won’t leave a lot of time to cook dinner though, but I have a plan: Frozen cheese ravioli, left-over marinara and a quick salad. By the time the water boils and the ravioli are done, I will have the sauce warmed and the salad made. We even have some rolls left from last night if someone wants bread with their dinner.
The vegetarian marinara sauce is really easy and tasty. Here’s the recipe:
Vegetarian Marinara Sauce (double batch)
Ingredients:
2 large onions, chopped finely
2 bulbs of garlic, minced finely
2 bell peppers (red, green or one of each), chopped finely
1 can black olives, drained and chopped finely
1 pound mushrooms, chopped finely
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar
2 – 26 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes
handful dried oregano
handful dried basil
salt to taste
The reason I chop every thing finely for this sauce is that it gives a consistency resembling ground beef in the sauce. It took a very long time for my kids to realize there wasn’t any meat in this sauce.
In a heavy bottomed pan sauté the onions until softened. Add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes. Next add the bell peppers and garlic and cook until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan (except the salt) and bring up to a boil. Turn down and simmer for at least 30 minutes. The longer it simmers, the better the sauce will taste. After the first 30 minutes, taste the sauce to see if it needs any salt. It may not because the olives are salty and the canned tomatoes usually contain salt also.
A trick I use if the sauce gets too thick, is to add a can of V-8 juice. It has most of the same ingredients as the sauce so it adds liquid and maintains the flavor.
So if the weather holds, my garden will be completely planted tonight before dinner. My Quick Fix Dinner will be less than 30 minutes from start to finish. Everyone will be satisfied with the garden and the dinner!
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