Easy ravioli lasagna for when you want lasagna but you’re feeling lazy AF.
I can remember being a kid… like… 10 years old… standing in my mom’s kitchen over the stove, browning beef and adding spices to the Hunt’s canned pasta sauce to ‘make it my own’ whilst cooking pasta for dinner. I did this once or twice a week for my entire family because I loved it. LOVED IT. I loved feeling like I was good at ‘cooking’ and I loved using my hands to make food for my family. I probably ruined the sauce (though, can you ‘ruin’ Hunt’s canned sauce? Isn’t it already ruined?) and I’m sure it didn’t taste as good as I thought it did, but I enjoyed it.
I don’t know why I loved it, but I do know that it started from very young… 6 or 7 maybe?
Until recently, I had completely forgotten that my love of cooking and creating in the kitchen started from childhood. To be honest, I never really knew if my deep, deep love for creating in the kitchen and feeding people I loved was naturally born in to me or if the eating disorder I had fought for 7 years was the culprit.
One morning, while listening to Big Magic on Audible, I remembered my childhood. I remembered making cookie dough by myself (not well, mind you) at 7 years old, living in Prince Edward Island just because I wanted to eat the dough, and because I wanted to do it myself. I remembered attempting (and failing) to make apple crisp for my sister and father at 9 years old while living in Newfoundland because my mom was staying in Ontario to help my other sister with her newborn and I remembered making banana cream pie at 10:00 at night with my friend, Kyle, at 15 years old… becuz pie cravings are serious business.
And I realized that my eating disorder had made food complicated, and cooking ‘healthier’ alternatives more appealing than the ones I grew up making, not the love of cooking in general.
I have, for a long time, made the food I crave and love to eat, without trying to ‘reduce calories’ or make swaps to things because of diet culture, and I love it just as much as I did at 5, 7, 9, 15 years old. More, really. And I’m happier when I’m consistently creating.
That doesn’t mean I want to make elaborate meals everyday or need to make everything from scratch. I just want to use my hands to put a comforting dish together to share with my husband and/or friends. I was actually relieved to realize cooking was my joy, not my eating disorder, because I missed my creativity terribly.
This ravioli lasagna was born out of convenience, with the added comfort of my homemade marinara simmering away on the stove and piles of cheese melting between the layers.
If you love pasta, comfort food, semi-homemade and delicious, cheesy things, and you don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen, this easy ravioli lasagna is for you.
Cheers!
- 1 350g package cheese or cheese + spinach ravioli
- 1 recipe for tomato butter marinara or 30oz your favorite marinara* see notes
- 2 cups mixed mozzarella, grana padano, parmesan, asiago, fontina, etc. *see notes
- extra sauteed or roasted veggies, optional
- extra cheese, pesto, etc. for serving, optional
- Preheat oven to 400F
- In an 8x8 or 9x9inch baking dish, place a layer of sauce then top evenly with ravioli. Top with some cheese, then more sauce and continue to layer in that order until you run out of ravioli. Top the last layer of ravioli with sauce and then the remaining cheese.
- Cover with aluminum foil and place on the center rack of your oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove foil and continue to bake for 10-15 minutes more.
- Allow to rest for 10 minutes then serve.
- Serve with extra cheese, basil, pesto, garlic bread, etc.
Leftovers keep well up to 5 days.
I used my tomato butter marinara recipe (linked above in the post and below) but a 30oz jar of your favorite sauce will cut down on your kitchen time.
I used a mix of mozzarella, grana padano and manchengo because that's what I had on hand and what I love. You do you. I used approx. ½ mozzarella, ¼ grana padano and ¼ manchengo.
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