I understand that making your own ravioli isn’t the hardest thing in the world, but when you get home at 7:00 pm and you’re hungry, you certainly don’t have the time to make it. Times like these call for a little cheating. Target sells a brand of good refrigerated pastas called Pasta Prima. It bills itself as 100% natural and their website extols their green energy production; both admirable qualities.

A tip on boiling your stuffed pastas like ravioli and tortellini: do not boil it hard. Bring your water to a boil, add the pasta, and when it begins a gentle boil, turn the heat down to maintain the gentle boil and not a rolling boil. This is also the time to begin timing the cook time. A refrigerated or fresh pasta should only need about four or five minutes of boiling. Also scoop your stuffed pastas out of the water rather than pouring into a colander to drain. This helps prevent splitting any of the ravioli open.

Here is what I did for tonight’s dinner.

Ingredients

2 8oz packages of refrigerated lobster ravioli
1 14.5oz can roasted, diced tomatoes with garlic
½ Cup heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
¼ cup reserved water from ravioli plus any lobster filling that may have come out of ravioli

Directions

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and add ravioli and reduce heat to sustain a gentle boil. Meanwhile, in a skillet, simmer can of tomatoes and cayenne pepper about five minutes. Add cream and simmer until sauce begins to thicken; about 10 minutes. When ravioli is cooked, scoop out ravioli and drain with a pasta ladle. Reserve about a quarter cup of pasta water. Carefully pour out remaining water so any bits of lobster that have come out of the ravioli remain in the pan. Add any of the loose lobster to the sauce and then add back enough of the reserved pasta water as needed to make a smooth, creamy sauce.