Fried Ravioli with a Creamy Marinara Dipping Sauce

This was a very productive weekend cooking wise I must say. Last night's dinner was courtesy of Paula Deen and was Fried Ravioli with a Creamy Marinara Dipping Sauce. This was a very simple to prepare dish since it doesn't call for you to create your own ravioli or sauce, you can just use the store bought kind. It makes it feel more homemade without spending hours in the kitchen!

Since my grocery store is on the smaller side (way smaller) I only got one choice of ravioli shapes and it wasn't squared, which I assume would of been easier to bread and fry. Instead it was a horseshoe shaped type of cheese ravioli, whatever, it worked in the end. You just cook this for about 2 or 3 minutes in some boiling water and then place them on a paper towel to dry off a bit while you make your crust.

The crust for this is just Parmesan cheese and pecans. I put my pecan pieces in a blender and pulverized them until they were the constancy of the Parmesan cheese and then I mixed the two. Next time, I am going to separate this breading into two bowls after mixing because after about 20 mini raviolis have been dunked in egg batter and then into the breading, it started to get lumpy and wasn't sticking to the ravioli well. So next time, about half way through I will have some fresh breading to work with.

Frying was easy, just about a minute on each side, they turned golden brown and looked amazing. Word to the wise though, wait until they cool before you pop one in your mouth. When they are cool enough to eat with out scalding your taste buds, they melt in your mouth. You can't really taste the pecans when they are finely chopped like that. The crust is very very crispy but the inside is still soft and the cheesy is all melty inside the ravioli. It really is amazing.

If you have any left over after "taste testing" you can make a dipping sauce from canned marinara sauce and heavy cream. Just heat these two on the stove, mix and you have a great tasting dipping sauce.

If your marinara or pasta sauce went missing, or ran away like mine seemed to do, you can always just make a simple pasta sauce with some canned tomatoes and some Italian seasoning. (I just used the one McCormick has that has all the spices already mixed up). Just pop this into your bullet for a minute and wa-la, you have pasta sauce.

Below is what I think your finished product should look like. Paula Deen, if this is not correct, I'd be more than willing for you to show me how to do it right. (there was no picture with the recipe)