Sometimes, you may get feedback that you don’t agree with and maybe that feedback is that your story is full of clichés . Those poops. This is the comforting recipe for you in that time of need. Avoid those naysayers like the plague! 🙂
Adriatic Ravioli of Clichés
Servings
4
servingsPrep time
30
minutesCooking time
40
minutesCalories
300
kcalStuff That Goes In It
1 lb asparagus — fresh
1 lb cheese ravioli — small, frozen
5 TB butter or margarine
1 lg red bell pepper — cut into skinny, 2-inch-long strips
½ lb mushrooms — thinly sliced
4 lg garlic cloves — peeled and minced
3 TB unbleached white flour
2½ c milk
¼ ts salt
1 ts paprika — plus more if you like to bling out your food
1 TB Dijon mustard
¼ c fresh basil — chopped
½ c Romano cheese — (2 ounces), finely grated
Pepper
Finely grated Parmesan for serving (more bling)
How to Make It
- Find a large pot. Think about how that pot is as old as the hills.
- Put water in the pot.
- Put that pot on a burner and make that water boil, but don’t watch it! A watched pot never boils. Actually, DO watch it because you don’t want it to boil over.
- Meanwhile, go find your asparagus and snap off and trash the tough ends. Imagine that you are snapping and discarding the beta reader who said you had too many cliches in your story. That jerk.
- Cut the asparagus into 1-inch pieces.
- Steam your asparagus for about 6 to 8 minutes, until it is barely tender and cute as a button.
- Set it somewhere. Think about why your beta reader and agent hate cliches. You’d thought they were the salt of the earth. Were you wrong?
- Cook the ravioli. Stir it once in awhile. Begin cooking the ravioli, stirring occasionally. Look at it. It’s in hot water.
- Find a skillet. Put it on medium heat and melt 1 TB of butter in it. It’s a baptism of fire for that pour butter.
- Saute the mushrooms, pepper and garlic about three minutes.
- Take those tender veggies away from the harsh heat.
- Get the rest of the butter and a big saucepan. Put them on medium heat.
- Find the flour and whisk it into the butter and do that for about two minutes before slowly pouring in the milk. Do not spill the milk that way you don’t have to cry over it.
- Keep whisking. It is what it is.
- Whisk for forever, which is basically 3 to 5 minutes when whisking. Finish in the nick of time, right before your wrist falls off.
- Add the salt, paprika, mustard, basil, Romano cheese, and pepper and let the good times roll!
- Stir until the cheese melts. Only time will tell how long that will take.
- Put the heat on super low and stir in the vegetables. Keep your chin up and ignore those naysayers.
- Once the ravioli is floating, drain it, put it in a bowl.
- Put a ring on it. I mean, put the sauce on it.
- Toss.
- And last but not least, bling it out with paprika and parmesan.
Notes
- This awesome recipe is from Ginny Callan’s, Beyond The Moon Cookbook. The vegetarian bible of my youth.
Writing Coach
