Pesto Sauces for Cheese Ravioli

Published January 1, 2012. From Cook's Illustrated.

Packaged ravioli are super-convenient. But choose the wrong sauce and dinner will be a washout.

The Problem

Once you cut into premade ravioli, the excess water trapped inside during boiling leaks out, waterlogging the dish.

The Goal

We wanted a repertoire of fresh, easy, intensely flavored pesto sauces that elevated a convenience food to something worth making anytime.

The Solution

Branching out from the traditional basil and pine-nut pesto, we replaced the basil with jarred roasted red peppers and the pine nuts with pistachios. Working some basil back into the mix added complexity, and blanching the garlic cloves in the boiling pasta water mellowed their bite.

Inspired by our master recipe, we then moved on to some variations. We paired an assertive central ingredient with Parmesan cheese, blanched garlic, and complementary herbs and toasted nuts or seeds.

There was one final consideration: how best to cook store-bought ravioli, no matter the brand or package instructions. We came up with our own indicator: Once the corners of the ravioli were slightly tender—but not mushy—we took them off the heat.

list of recipes

America’s Test Kitchen is a 2,500-square-foot kitchen located just outside of Boston. It is the home of Cook’s Country and Cook’s Illustrated magazines and is the workday destination for more than three dozen test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes until we understand how and why they work and arrive at the best version. We also test kitchen equipment and supermarket ingredients in search of brands that offer the best value and performance. You can watch us work by tuning in to America’s Test Kitchen (www.americastestkitchen.com) on public television.