15 Ingredients That Elevate Store-Bought Ravioli

For folks with busy lives who aren't interested in spending a small fortune on eating out or takeout, store-bought ravioli is a wonderful food to have in your fridge. Whether making an easy weeknight dinner, Sunday lunch, or a simple ravioli side dish for your main course, it's not hard to turn to store-bought ravioli. They're delicious on their own while also being customizable with whatever your preferences are. There's also usually some variety in choice of filling and even dough, so you can find meat-filled ravioli, vegetarian, cheesy options, or even vegan options like mushroom or pumpkin ravioli. Plus, you can sometimes find gluten-free pasta or vegetable-infused pasta, too.

The best part about store-bought ravioli is that they're ready in minutes, with so little effort, for what is a pretty tasty result. If you want to jazz them up for yourself, or you want to make them feel a little more worthy of serving to friends, there are so many ways you can use other pantry items to make them even better. As a food writer and recipe developer, store-bought ravioli is my weekly go-to for a quick and easy meal. I love how versatile they are, and I enjoy playing around with sauces, pestos, oils, seasonings, and other ingredients to enhance and vary my ravioli eating experience. The possibilities are numerous, and only limited by the bounds of your creativity and taste preferences. Here are some ingredients that elevate store-bought ravioli.

Starting off very simply is giving your ravioli a good glug of olive oil. Pasta and olive oil are made to be together, and it's no different with ravioli. Store-bought ravioli is already pretty tasty and usually even handmade if you find a good brand. Depending on the filling you choose, they are delicious on their own and don't need much added to them. This is where olive oil comes in. Adding a little drizzle of olive oil to your ravioli will give it a slightly more sophisticated taste without any extra effort.

This is especially the case if you use good quality, extra-virgin olive oil. The flavor will complement the ravioli and make it feel freshly homemade. In truth, it will enhance your pasta and filling, letting those flavors shine, while giving it a very subtle full-bodied palate. Once your ravioli is cooked and drained of its water, add a few drops of olive oil to each ravioli, or gently mix them to make sure you've evenly coated them with the olive oil.

Pesto is an easy choice for pouring over pasta, and it goes especially well with ravioli. Homemade pesto sauce always beats store-bought pesto, no matter what. Even if you're a novice cook, it's a really approachable thing to make and can make you feel really impressed with yourself. Since you're getting the shortcut of using store-bought ravioli, whipping up a homemade pesto can really be worth doing, especially if you have the few ingredients needed. However, if you're really short on time, store-bought pesto can also elevate your ravioli, and there's no shame in choosing convenience.

If you are making your own pesto, throwing all your ingredients in a blender is one of the easiest ways to do so. Remember not to over blend your pesto so that you can enjoy a slightly chunky texture rather than drowning your ravioli in a thick green smoothie. The best thing about making your own pesto is getting to choose what kind you want to make; if you're not a fan of basil, why not try a cilantro pesto recipe, or go a completely different route by trying out a sun-dried tomato pesto instead.

If you want to get truly fancy with your ravioli, then look no further than sage. With this herb, you can make your store-bought meal restaurant quality. Sage gives anything you add to it a complex, woody, and warm aroma. It's not as common as other herbs and tends to be a little harder to source than parsley or dill, for example. However, if you manage to get your hands on some fresh sage leaves, you'll see how just a few of them can elevate your dish instantly. Sage compliments all the fall produce really well, so when you're choosing ravioli, pumpkin will work great. Sage also goes great with chicken or ground beef too.

Quite a nifty thing that many chefs do is to make crispy sage by flash-frying some leaves first. This deepens their flavor and gives them a delightful crunchy texture that's easier to eat than having to chew a fresh sage leaf. The good news is that you can air-fry sage leaves to achieve a similar effect. You don't have to get any pots and pans involved with this method; simply brush the leaves with some oil and air fry them for a couple of minutes.

It's not far-fetched that most people treat ravioli differently than other types of pasta. When we make spaghetti or penne, we often think that a tomato-based sauce would go well, but it's also possible to do all sorts of other sauces, too. With ravioli, people tend to think in more limited terms and wouldn't perhaps add a tomato-based sauce like pomodoro. However, this really shouldn't be the case because pomodoro and many other sauces go great with ravioli, just like with other pasta. In fact, it's a great way to elevate the meal into something a bit richer in flavor without much effort.

You can use ready-made pomodoro or make your own, as it's quite simple to make. The essentials include olive oil, garlic and some canned tomatoes. However, there's no reason to stop at pomodoro, you can try another tomato-abased sauce that's similar to pomodoro, like marinara for a chunkier sauce with bold flavors.

Butter is a great option for adding extra richness to your ravioli. It's reminiscent of buttered noodles, a childhood dish for many. While butter is already delicious, you may wish to make it a little more complex and adult by making brown butter. You may have seen brown butter on the menu of a fancy restaurant and wondered what the big deal is. In truth, it's really simple. Brown butter is a more concentrated butter that's been cooked a little longer, giving it a deeper and slightly nuttier taste. It goes beautifully with ravioli and is sure to give your store-bought ravioli a more sophisticated flavor. Plus, it all comes together in minutes, as you can make brown butter while you're cooking your ravioli.

Making brown butter involves heating up the butter to the point that its three components, namely water, milk solids, and fat, separate. The water evaporates and the milk solids sink to the bottom, and brown as it cooks. This is what develops the distinct brown butter taste. The only tricky part is that butter tends to burn quite quickly, so it's best to follow these tips when making brown butter.

When you're in the mood for something comforting, there's little that rivals a warm brothy soup. Making a savory broth is great when you're sick or even just in need of some soothing. It's also a great way to eat your store-bought ravioli, turning it into a pot of bubbling ravioli soup. It's not as strange as it sounds since we're used to eating dumplings in soup in many cultures, and ravioli is basically just a pasta dumpling anyway. Plus, the Italians do it with a smaller filled pasta called anolini, so there's really no reason not to do the same with ravioli.

You can prepare a homemade broth by throwing some aromatics in a pot, along with water and seasonings. To make it deeper you can throw some chicken into the mix, or simply use a stock cube. Once it tastes good according to your preferences, strain the broth and add in your ravioli. You can also cook your ravioli in the broth for maximized cohesion. Squeeze a few drops of lemon and grate in some Parmesan and you've got a really tasty brothy ravioli soup.

This may be a surprising combination, but sprinkling some za'atar over your ravioli can give it an incredible herbaceous taste. If you've never heard of za'atar, it's a dry herb and spice blend that hails from the Levant in the Middle East, and it's made of a mix of wild thyme, sumac, sesame seeds, and salt. Different blends might vary, but the salty, woody taste is unmistakable, and with the inclusion of sumac, there's an element of tartness that gives the whole thing a well-rounded flavor.

Traditionally, za'atar is eaten with olive oil and bread, or on cheesy flatbreads called manakish. However, it's really up to you how to use it, and it goes great as a sprinkle on salads, eggs, or even roast potatoes. You can drizzle a little bit of olive oil over your ravioli, then follow that with a sprinkle of za'atar for a truly delicious dish. Bonus points if it's a cheese filled ravioli, as they'll be an obvious match.

If you want a simple way to enhance your store-bought ravioli, there's always the option of adding cheese. Of course, you can go for the usual grated Parmesan or even some mozzarella. However, if you want to give your dish a bit more flavor and flair, pecorino is a great option. It's bursting with umami and adds a good hit of salt to the dish, too. This Italian cheese is harder, and there are different types, so you can try a few to choose your favorite. However, the thing that makes pecorino is that it's made entirely from sheep's milk, as "pecora" means sheep in Italian.

You can grate pecorino, but it's even better to make shavings instead. This means, shaving off larger, thin pieces of the cheese, and you can use a potato peeler to do so, or if your grater has a side for making shavings, that will work too. Grind some black pepper on top of your finished dish (as black pepper and pecorino often go together), and enjoy.

Truffles are about as fancy as it gets, and they are destined to be eaten with pasta. It's a common combination and an obvious one, as the more neutral taste of pasta can let the truffle shine. However, truffles are usually really expensive, and also not so easy to find as they're incredibly seasonal. This is where truffle oil comes in. It's often a much more affordable way to inject a flavor of truffle into anything.

Truffle oil has been infused with all that rich truffle flavor that you're after, so it's a great ingredient to keep in your pantry if you want to add some decadence to your fries, eggs, pasta, and more. This makes it the perfect way to elevate a dish of store-bought ravioli. Drizzle some onto your cooked ravioli and you're good to go. Plus, why not choose your ravioli to go with your truffle oil by pairing some mushroom-stuffed ravioli for the fungi connection, or some creamy ricotta ravioli to bring out the richness of the truffle oil.

Butter is the thing that makes everything taste better and sometimes it's as simple as adding a little bit to a dish that takes it to the next level. It's no different with ravioli, but just like wanting a more complex flavor with brown butter, you can also use a compound butter to add a whole lot of flavor, along with the fatty goodness. An easy compound butter that can offer a lot of brightness to a packet of store-bought ravioli is herb butter.

You can choose the herbs you enjoy, whether it's parsley, chives, fresh thyme, or some dill, or even combine a few types of herbs. To add, simply chop and mix the herbs with some melted butter. For extra freshness, include some lemon zest — it's subtle but will make your butter taste incredible. Then cool your butter until it solidifies, and keep it in the fridge for adding to any dishes you like, including ravioli. All you need to do is add a knob of your herb butter to your cooked ravioli to enjoy an elevated and tasty dish.

Sometimes your ravioli tastes really great, but it's all usually one note of texture. In truth, it depends on how you cook your ravioli, and it's always best to keep it al dente, but it's usually just soft and not very texturally varied. One way to add a little texture to your dish is by sprinkling on some nuts, and pine nuts make for a complementary textural and taste addition. They're quite an underrated nut in the Western world, but these small nuts are incredibly rich and flavorful.

Toast some pine nuts for extra nuttiness by warming them up in a dry pan. Don't leave them unattended as they can burn quite quickly, but give them a little toss on medium heat until they turn a deeper beige to brown color, and you can smell their aroma more strongly. Then, grab a handful and sprinkle them generously over your cooked ravioli. They can go with pretty much any type of ravioli filling, but fall vegetables like squash, zucchini, and pumpkin stuffed ravioli would work a treat.

Sometimes, your store-bought ravioli doesn't fill you up as much as you'd like, especially if you've had a long day and are feeling hungry. Eggs are full of protein and fats, making it a great way to bulk up your ravioli and make it a fuller meal. You can often find yolk-filled ravioli in high-end restaurants, where the yolk oozes out as you cut through your pasta. This isn't as easy to recreate at home, but you can do something with a similar effect by poaching your eggs.

Poaching eggs just enough that the yolk is still soft can get you that oozing yolk that you're after, which will coat your ravioli with its luxurious mouthfeel. Plus, it's easier to poach eggs than you think, and if you're nervous to drop them in water, you can poach them in the microwave for a fool-proof method.

For meat eaters, there's usually a deep appreciation for bacon because of all the fatty saltiness and umami depth they can add to a meal. They're even more fun in the form of bacon bits, which you can crisp up to add some texture to a dish like ravioli, which could use some more savory flavor and texture. Plus, the more you brown them, the more smokiness you can impart into any dish. This is especially true with ravioli, where the bacon can really shine and take center stage.

Bacon makes for the perfect topping for all sorts of ravioli, and you can combine it with some spinach to make a bacon and spinach topped ravioli, or even some mushrooms. Pairing some cheesy ravioli with some bacon bits is the ultimate comfort food. The best part is you can cook up some bacon bits in the minutes that it takes to boil your ravioli, and there's no need to add fat or oil, as the bacon will produce enough to coat your ravioli and make it extra decadent.

Pasta and a classic white sauce is a creamy comfort food that's sure to make you feel satisfied. There's no rule that says you can't add some white sauce to ravioli, and in fact, it's a great way to jazz up your store-bought ravioli into something richer. You can even make a ravioli pasta bake with some white sauce or bechamel and some toppings like broccoli, bacon, spinach, or cheese, and let it bake until it turns golden brown.

You can also keep it simple with just a creamy white sauce, as that's really all you need. There are different ways to make white sauce, and usually, you've already got some of these ingredients in your pantry, like milk, flour, and butter. If you don't want to make it from scratch, you can use a packet one that you can enhance with some spices and seasonings of your choice. Pour it all over your ravioli, and add some grated cheese on top for a hit of salt and even more creaminess.

If you're looking for an exciting take on ravioli, there's a North African condiment called chermoula, which can add a whole lot of zing to your meal. Chermoula is an herb and spice sauce that's usually made with varied ingredients depending on preference. Some essentials include parsley, cilantro, tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and lemon. For some heat, add some fresh or powdered chile, which is common but not mandatory.

It's a great way to brighten up a bowl of ravioli, and it will definitely open up your appetite to want to eat more. Plus, you can customize it and leave out anything you don't like or include some extras that you do like. It comes together in minutes, and you can use it on more than just your ravioli. Keep it in the fridge to use on grilled fish, chicken, or even to top your avocado toast.