Deconstructed Beef Ravioli

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I spent hours making homemade beef ravioli and weren't entirely satisfied with the results.  Don't get me wrong.  They were good, but I was aiming for great.  You can read my blog post about our ravioli experiments here. 

Shortly after we made ravioli, I had the idea of making rigatoni, and tossing them with the same filling I use in my beef ravioli.  Wouldn't I be getting the same taste, without all the hard labor?  The answer turned out to be yes!  

I chose to use rigatoni in the hopes that some of the ground beef mixture might make its way into the pasta, plus I love BiAglut Rigatoni.  You can read more about BiAglut Rigatoni here.  Update - I started using Le Veneziane rigatoni to make this dish when BiAglut became very hard to purchase in the U.S.  

I changed up my beef mixture just a little bit from when I made ravioli.  I added some garlic and extra spinach.  

The first thing my husband said after tasting my rigatoni was that it was as good as beef ravioli.  Later on, when he was on his third helping, he said he liked it better!  My daughters and I loved it too!  

Deconstructed Beef Ravioli

Ingredients

1 lb gluten free pasta

1 lb lean ground beef 

1 1/2 C finely chopped fresh baby spinach

1tsp olive oil

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp coarse ground black pepper

3 T salted butter

Parmesan and/or Romano cheese - grated

Directions

Cook your pasta according to package directions.  While the water for your pasta is heating up, cook the ground beef over medium high heat in a large frying pan.  Take your pan off the heat when the beef is no longer pink.  After it cools for a minute or two, remove any excess liquid. 

When your pasta is almost done cooking, put your pan with the ground beef back on a burner turned to medium heat.  Add the spinach, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Cook for a minute or two until the spinach begins to wilt.  Take your pan off the heat, and add 2 tablespoons of grated cheese to the ground beef mixture.  Stir to combine.  

When the pasta is done cooking, drain it, and put it in a large serving bowl with the butter.  Add 3 tablespoons of grated cheese and stir the pasta well before adding the ground beef mixture.  With a large serving spoon, gently stir your pasta to incorporate the beef before serving.  Garnish each bowl with more cheese.  

Recipe Notes

You can use either ground chuck or lean ground beef in this recipe.  

I used a combination of Romano and Parmesan.  

I prefer to eat ravioli with butter and cheese, but you could use a red sauce instead of the butter.  You can view my recipe for quick cook tomato sauce here.  

February 26, 2014 Update - I made deconstructed beef ravioli with penne tonight.  I served half of it with butter and the other half with my mom's quick cook tomato sauce.  My parents, my husband, and my daughters preferred it with red sauce.  Only me, myself, and I liked it better with butter.  :-)

May 14, 2014 Update

Tonight, I used a bag of BiAglut gluten free maccheroncini (macaroni).  I really like Barilla gluten free pasta, but BiAglut is still my favorite.  I have been ordering BiAglut from Vitacost. 

February 4, 2016 Update

In recent months, I have been making beef ravioli with Cappello's gluten free lasagna sheets, which you can read about here.