Fried ravioli Olive Garden style

I love food.  I feel like I should be in an anon group when I say that.  But, I do.

When I was first married, McDonald’s was a treat.  And, also about all we could afford!  But, since I was feeding us things like Hamburger Helper, it tasted pretty darned good.

Then, I became a bit better of a cook.  And McDonald’s became the place we went if the kids wanted to–but I didn’t really like it.  Enter Pizza Hut & chinese. I also liked the ma & pops places.  Good home cooking.  Probably better than mine.

Then I learned to cut up my own chicken, how to make great fruit pies and how to make my own noodles.  We also had an apple orchard and we made apple juice, apple butter, and apple pie.  Now, my tastes in restaurants changed and that is when I figured myself out.  Well, as far as eating goes.  I  never am willing to spend good money on something I can make better myself.

So, nice food chains became our meals of choice.  Olive Garden, Carlos O’Kelleys, steak houses.  Wherever we went it was a treat.  And, out of pride (or frugalism-if it isn’t a word, it should be!) I always tried to replicate and better the recipes at home.

Appetizers.  I have to admit, restaurants have me beat on that a lot of the time.

Olive Garden’s ravioli.  The first time I had this, I thought it was wonderful.  I learned to make their crab stuffed mushrooms, fried cheese, and even their salad with dressing.

So, I looked for a recipe on Copycat recipes etc.  I read them all and so decided to try my hand at this.  Well, try Tony’s hand at this! 😉 My hands were full of buttons & balloons.

We gathered everything up.  3 bowls: one with flour, one 2 eggs and one with italian bread crumbs.  Then a frozen (and thawed) package of raviolis.

Dip the raviolis into the flour. Then dip them in the egg.  Finish them off with the bread crumbs.  When they are all dipped, dipped and dipped again–they are ready for the deep fat fryer.  We set ours at 350 degrees and had it ready to go.

Plop those puppies in there and let them cook for 2 or 3 minutes.

Pull them out and let them drain on paper towels.

Hot and sizzling; dipped in marinara sauce.  What a great appetizer!