Cheese ravioli with sausage and spinach-pistachio pesto

Home style gourmet is about creating flavors at home that are a cut above the usual, by using local high quality ingredients. It's my own mish mash of homemade and store bought, trying to find a balance among flavor, ease of preparation, and cost. Point being, I don't make homemade ravioli, I bought Trader Joe's fresh jumbo cheese ravioli for $2.50 and called it even. I want to create some great flavors, but rolling my own dough just seems like too much work, as I am not experienced with it. I didn't press the olive oil either... ;)

I never measure anything, bad habit, this is my guess as to what I did.


Spinach-pistachio pesto

1/4 cup raw pistachios
1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil (more? I added as little as I could to get the blender going, but it was still a lot)
fresh spinach 4 oz
fresh basil 4 oz
1/4 cup grated parmesan (nice Argentinian reggiano knock off at Whole Foods, $6/lb or something, freshly grated)
garlic 2 cloves crushed
heavy pinch or two of salt and pepper


Roast the pistachios in a pan with the olive oil on low heat for 5-10 minutes. Let cool. Mix everything in a blender. This is a great base for other dishes, and it's great alone on toasted baguette slices. I find the spinach makes it last longer in the fridge, about a week, so you can make this ahead of time.


Pesto ravioli sauce:

4 oz pesto
8 oz chicken broth (TJs again for this ingredient, though I have been making my own with some success)
2 oz cream
Italian sausages
olive oil

Remove the skins from half the sausages and make them into small pieces. Sautee the pieces and the remaining links a bit of olive oil until brown. On low heat add the pesto and chicken broth and simmer for 10-20 minutes. You can reduce the sauce for a thicker consistency, or mix in some flour either while sauteeing or simmering. I prefer to add the cream after the heat is off, or at least not cook it too long.

Ravioli:

Open package, boil 10 minutes, drain. Serve with a sausage link and some sauce, garnish with a little chopped Italian parsley and grated parmesan cheese.