Sauteed Rosemary Garlic Sauce on Chicken and Spinach Ravioli

     Anita and I decided to try some locally made ravioli which we purchased at our favorite food store, the Back Porch Market in Grass Valley, CA. As we've mentioned before, this is our local gourmet grocery store and we shop there regularly.
     Anyway the ravioli that we decided upon are locally made with chicken, spinach, rosemary and garlic a flavor combination that would be delicious as long as we used a complementary sauce that wouldn't overpower them. We discarded the idea of marinara or pesto sauces as being too flavorful; and we didn't particularly want to make a rich bechamel sauce so we decided to improvise.
     What sounded and turned out to be good was a pan sauce made by sauteing rosemary and garlic in extra virgin olive oil then adding some Parmesan cheese, salt, red pepper flakes and a little lemon juice. Our idea was that this would augment the ravioli's flavors rather than conflicting or overpowering them.
     The result was delicious and beautiful as Anita plated it with rosemary sprigs as garnish. We have no idea if ravioli with these flavor ingredients can be purchased anywhere else nor how they are made but we thought that other cooks could benefit from our thinking on sauces that would be appropriate. The details of the sauce follow:

Sauteed Rosemary Garlic Sauce
Serves:                 2
Prep Time:            5 minutes
Cook Time:           15 minutes

INGREDIENTS:
3/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 large cloves garlic, sliced thin
4 sprigs of fresh rosemary, washed and dried
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
juice from 1/2 lemon, the rest quartered and served
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
pinch of salt
a couple of grinds of black pepper

PREPARATION:
1. Pour the oil in a 12 inch saute pan over medium low heat. Add the sprigs of rosemary a pinch of salt and saute for about 10 minutes or until the leaves are starting to brown and diminish in size.
2. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes and black pepper and saute for another minute or two until the garlic is cooked as you like it.
3. Turn off the heat, remove the rosemary sprigs, add in the lemon juice and Parmesan and mix thoroughly. Then cover and let rest on the warm burner while the ravioli cooks for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Either place the cooked, and drained ravioli in the pan and mix with the pan sauce or place the ravioli onto warmed plates and spoon the sauce on top.

SERVING:
Serve on warmed plates with sprigs of rosemary, basil or Italian parsley as garnish and a slice of lemon if desired.

We hope that this post is informative and that you all benefit from our experience in developing a sauce suitable for a particular ravioli.

Bon appetit,
Tom and Anita