Toasted Ravioli With Homemade Marinara

If you've never had toasted ravioli, you've been missing out! These are so easy to put together and make a fantastic party food or appetizer. With just a few ingredients, you can whip these up, including homemade marinara sauce, in less than an hour. These are so easy to make, unless you're in St. Louis, you should give them a try. Of course, if you are in St. Louis, absolutely seek these out because their toasted ravioli is to die for!

These toasted ravioli are easy to do, and the marinara sauce is simpler than you'd expect too. You'll need:

For the marinara sauce:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup onion, minced
• 1 (28-ounce) can whole, peeled tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• a few fresh basil sprigs

For the ravioli:

• ravioli (refrigerated, frozen (thawed) or freshly made)
• 2 eggs
• water
• flour
• Italian bread crumbs
• oil for frying

This marinara sauce is so good! I've made marinara before but this was a simpler recipe and it came out delicious!

Start by heating 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a sauce pot. Add 4 cloves of minced garlic and 1/4 cup of minced onion. Cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add in 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1 teaspoon seasoned salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Mix.

Dump in 1 (28-ounce) can of whole peeled tomatoes, including all the juices. I used a can of Cento San Marzano tomatoes, but you can use romas (or any other tomato you find in a can) instead if that is easier to come by. You can also use diced tomatoes if prefered. I don't think you can really go wrong here, though of course different tomatoes may have some effect on the taste or thickness of the sauce. I am sure it will turn out tasty either way.

Use a potato masher or a wooden spoon to mash the tomatoes up. Give the sauce a good stir then stir in a few sprigs of fresh basil.

Allow sauce to come to a simmer and heat on low heat for 30 minutes. Stir periodically.

After the marinara has cooked for 30 minutes, pick out the basil leaves and discard them. Your marinara can be done at this point if you like a chunky marinara, or you can blend the sauce up with an immersion blender. I wanted a smoother sauce so I blended it up a little. You can make it completely smooth if you blend it up completely and put it through a fine mesh strainer, if desired.

This sauce goes great with any pasta, on a meatball sandwiches, over chicken parm, with mozzarella sticks... and of course, toasted ravioli!

While the marinara is simmering, you can start making the ravioli. Start with refrigerated ravioli. You can use whatever flavor you like. I opted for cheese, but beef is more of the traditional St. Louis style. You can also use frozen ravioli, just allow to thaw beforehand in the fridge. Homemade ravioli is also a possibility, if you have them available. You don't need to cook the ravioli beforehand, which is nice because these can come right out of the fridge and be ready to go.

Set up a little ravioli station starting with the open bag or ravioli, followed by three bowls and then plate. In the first bowl, you'll add about a cup of plain flour. In the second bowl, add two large eggs and 1/4 cup of water. Beat the eggs with a whisk. In the third bowl, add about a cup of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs. You may need to add more flour or breadcrumbs, depending on how big your ravaioli are or how many you're making.

Now we can start coating the ravioli. Start by tossing the ravioli in the flour. Knock off any excess flour. Next, dunk into the egg mixture and turn to coat. Let the egg mixture drip off, then put the ravioli in the bread crumbs and shake off excess crumbs. Place on the plate and continue until you coat the rest of the ravioli.

Now we're going to take all those ravioli and give them a second coating of egg and breadcrumbs. Take each ravioli and dunk it in the egg mixture again, then follow that up with another coating of bread crumbs. Make sure to shake off any excess crumbs so you don't have globs of breading floating in the oil when you fry them.

Now we are ready to fry up some ravioli! While the name of this snack is "toasted ravioli" they are actually fried. You can make these in the oven or air fryer if you lightly spray them with an oil first, but pan frying works best in my opinion.

Heat about an inch of oil in a deep walled pan. I used veggie oil but you can use canola instead if you prefer. To know when the oil is hot enough, I drip a drop of water into the oil as it is heating up on medium high heat. Once you start to hear the oil making some noise and popping a bit, you'll know the oil it's hot enough. You could use a thermometer if you wish, I just never like standing there waiting for the oil to get up to temperature. Be careful with this method of monitoring the oil, as oil and water do not mix and it will cause some popping. Put the drop of water in the oil right away, before it heats up.

Add ravaioli to the oil in batches. Make sure there is plenty of room around each ravioli. Let them cook for a few minutes then check the bottoms to see if they're browned yet.

Once you see they are browned, flip to the other side with a pair of tongs. Let them cook a few minutes more until the second side is browned. Make sure you keep an eye on them, you don't want to burn them!

Once the ravioli are cooked, move to a paper towel lined plate to help drain excess oil.

Serve up your toasted ravioli with your homemade marinara sauce. Top with a little shredded parmesan and some minced parsley and enjoy! These are so tasty, they are sure to be a crowd pleaser at your next party!