How To Make Two Easy Ravioli Lasagna Dinners For Two

Eat one now, freeze one for later! This simple and inexpensive recipe uses frozen ravioli, a quick meat sauce, and shredded mozzarella to create two dinners for two.

I’m sure there are purists out there who would say that what I’m about to share isn’t a “real” lasagna.

An authentic, Italian lasagna undoubtedly takes hours to make and includes hand-made pasta, slow simmered beef ragù, a rich béchamel sauce, and mountains of freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. And doesn’t the thought of all that make your mouth water?

But sometimes we just want a quick and easy substitute. This recipe might not be as decadent, but we think it’s pretty good. Especially for the amount of effort it takes – which is hardly any effort at all.

These two delicious ravioli lasagna dinners for two only require a few simple ingredients.

To make it easier to freeze a portion, we use two foil loaf pans for this recipe. I bought these at Walmart because the pans I found at the dollar store were too small to hold the layers of ingredients. I have washed and reused them a few times already, but you need to be careful not to puncture the pan when you’re cutting and serving the lasagna.

The ingredients for the ravioli lasagna are so simple! You need:

• a pound of ground beef (or your ground meat of choice)
• an onion
• two jars of your favorite marinara sauce
• a 20 oz. bag of frozen spinach and cheese ravioli (contains about 40 square raviolis)
• three cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
• garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning

There’s barely any prep to do, either. Just chop up the onion, add it to a large skillet and cook together with the ground beef, then drain any excess grease. Mix in about one and a half jars of the sauce and season with a generous amount of garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. You don’t need to cook or even thaw the raviolis, so that’s it! You’re ready to assemble.

Be forewarned: the meat and sauce mixture is going to seem too thin and “liquidy.” But you need a lot of liquid in this recipe to cook the raviolis, otherwise it will come out too dry. As they say, trust the process.

The next step is to layer the ingredients for the ravioli lasagnas into two loaf pans.

Start by spraying the inside of the pans with some cooking spray or olive oil spray to prevent sticking after they’re baked.

I’m a perfectionist about everything, so I had to do the math to equally divide the ingredients between two pans. If this makes it easier for you, here’s how I figured it out:

Start by spreading about 1/2 cup of sauce in the bottom of each pan. Place a layer of 10 frozen raviolis on top of that, then cover those with about 1 cup of meat sauce. Sprinkle about 3/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese on top of that. Repeat with another layer of 10 frozen raviolis and a cup of sauce, and top each pan with half the remaining cheese. (If you want to add a little more cheesiness, you can finish with some grated parmesan, but that’s optional.)

And there you have it – you just made two delicious dinners! Eat one now and freeze one for later.

You will want to cover both pans with some heavy duty foil. I use a permanent marker to label and date the one going in the freezer. (I include baking directions so I don’t have to look it up if I’ve forgotten how long to bake it and at what temperature.)

For the pan you’re going to eat now, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake the ravioli lasagna (covered with the foil) for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake another 15-20 minutes until bubbly and starting to brown.

Here’s something that’s exciting to me: you don’t have to thaw the frozen pan before you bake it! You can put it straight into a preheated 400 degree oven and bake covered with the foil for one hour. Then remove the foil and bake another 20 minutes or so until this one is bubbly and browned, too.

Serve this cheesy, tomatoey, savory ravioli lasagna with a green salad and some warm crusty bread. Yum, yum, yum! I might just have to take out that one I have in the freezer for dinner tonight!

Warning: Each pan of this ravioli lasagna really holds more like three portions. You may have to rock, paper, scissors to see who gets the third portion for lunch the next day. Buon appetito!

This is also a great recipe for when you want to bless someone by bringing them a meal. We’d love to hear your feedback if you try it! Leave your comments below.