Ahhhh Thanksgiving, the typical stuff your face with everything you can possibly eat holiday. But not for me, not this year! I had a wonderful low key day mostly snuggled up, cozy watching a Dexter marathon (I’m addicted). And since I’m not really a fan of most Turkey day foods I decided to go for a little Italian instead. My recipe of choice was a Tuscan Pasta with Tomato-Basil Cream along with some fresh cheesy, garlic, French bread. It was really easy and tasted delightful.

I started out by pre-heating the oven and preparing the French bread (not made from scratch just one of those packages). I took it out of the package and cut 5 slits equally distanced along the top.



Then I chopped the tomatoes and basil, I mixed them with the wine and vodka sauce (substitute as I couldn’t find the sun-dried tomato alfredo sauce which the recipe called for). I let them sit until I was about 7 minutes away from everything else being prepared.






I cooked the 4 cheese ravioli per the instructions on the package.

While waiting for the pasta to cook I grated some fresh parmesan cheese. Sliced some swiss cheese and melted some butter mixed with garlic.

About 7-10 minutes before the bread and pasta were done cooking. I turned the burner on to heat up the sauce. I also removed the bread from the oven and stuffed the slits I had cut previously with the swiss cheese and poured the garlic butter on top. Put it back in the over to finish cooking.

I added the cooked pasta to the warm sauce, garnished it with some parmesan cheese and fresh basil. Wahla!!! I had a yummy in my tummy meal, with plenty of left overs to give my roomies over the weekend since they were so sick of Thanksgiving leftovers!






Here’s the full recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 (20-oz.) package refrigerated four-cheese ravioli
1 (16-oz.) jar sun-dried tomato Alfredo sauce
2 tablespoons white wine
2 medium-size fresh tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Garnish: fresh basil strips

Preparation
1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile, pour Alfredo sauce into a medium saucepan. Pour wine into sauce jar; cover tightly, and shake well. Stir wine mixture into saucepan. Stir in chopped tomatoes and 1/2 cup chopped basil, and cook over medium-low heat 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Toss with pasta, and top evenly with 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Garnish, if desired.
*1 (13-oz.) package three-cheese tortellini may be substituted.
**1 (14.5-oz.) can petite diced tomatoes, fully drained, may be substituted.
***Note: For testing purposes only, we used Buitoni Four Cheese Ravioli and Classico Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo Pasta Sauce.