My in-laws gave me an awesome present for my 29th birthday: Le Creuset Mini Cocottes. If you know me well, you’ll know that I’m much (much) to cheap to ever buy anything that nice for myself, so it was an extra sweet birthday gift!
They are beautiful pieces of art, in my favourite bright and cheerful colours – so, really, they are perfect! They come with a cookbook, which is OK. The cocottes themselves are amazing. And CUTE!
Last weekend, we decided to make one of the recipes from the cookbook, Ravioli Gratins with Goat Cheese and Basil Pistou. Unfortunately, the grocery store was out of basil when we went shopping at 8pm on Sunday night, so we decided to substitute pre-made pesto for the basil pistou. It was awesome and made this dinner super easy. Another substitution was a cheaper stuffed cheese pasta for the raviolis. Totally 100% successful!
This is super rich dinner (four types of cheese! at least!) but 1 mini-cocotte per person paired with a simple arugula and tomato salad was seriously delicious. And pretty easy. With all these oven recipes recently, I really should get on item 15 from my 30-before-30 challenge, hey?
Ravioli Gratins with Goat Cheese and Basil Pistou
Makes 4 cocottes.
Recipe from Mini-Cocotte by Le Creuset
Ingredients
- 4 oz. crumbled fresh goat cheese
- 2 bunches fresh basil
- 4 cloves of galric
- Dash of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup cream or milk
- 8oz fresh or frozen cheese ravioli (12)
- 2 oz pine nuts
- 4 tablespoons Parmesean cheese
- Pine nuts and fresh basil leaves, for garnish
Directions
- Prepare the basil pistou: Combine fresh basil and garlic in a small mixer, and add a small dash of olive oil. Pulse until no large chunks of basil remain. [Note: If you don’t have basil or the energy to make the pistou, just substitute a pre-made (or self pre-made) pesto!]
- Precook the ravioli for 1-2 minutes in salted boiling water. Remove from pot and drain well, tossing gently with a splash of olive oil to prevent them from sticking together.
- Preheat the oven to 400?F.
- Lightly butter 4 mini cocottes (or large ramekins).
- Add to each, a layer of ravioli, a spoonful of crumbled goat cheese, and a spoonful of basil pistou. Add one teaspoon of pine nuts. Continue with another layer of ravioli, one tablespoon of cream, a spoonful of goat cheese and another of pistou. Top each cocotte with a ravioli, a tablespoon of cream, and a generous sprinkling of grated Parmesan.
- Bake, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, or until the tops look crunchy and the cheese begins to brown.
- Garnish with remaining pine nuts and some roughly chopped basil leaves.
Ooooooh! LOVE these! So cute…love Le Cruset…
…I’m such a nerd! :)