Olive Garden Ravioli di Portobello Copycat Recipe

Smoked cheese will typically have a brown rind from the smoke-curing process. Cheeses like fontina, gouda, and even mozzarella offer smoked versions. However, in order to use smoked cheese for an Italian sauce, you’d want to go with an Italian mild-flavored cheese that melts seamlessly. Mozzarella cheese can tend to be stringy as the curd is stretched when making. To make this sun-dried tomato sauce go with cheeses like smoked gouda, provolone, or fontina cheese.

The answer seems to be a mystery since Olive Garden never stated which smoked cheese they used for the Portobello di Ravioli on their menu or off the web. The fact of the matter can be controversial but the ones who really know would be the Olive Garden chefs themselves. Nevertheless, when aiming for a block of smoked flavored cheese, choose one that melts seamlessly and use only a smidge to enhance your sauce so you don’t overwhelm your ravioli.

Fontina cheese a mild-flavored cow-milk cheese that is similar to gouda, Monterey jack, or provolone. Choose any of the three kinds of cheese to make your sundried tomato sauce and go with one labeled “smoked” at a specialty cheese deli.

There are a couple of different ways to add a smokey flavor to foods without going through the lengthy smoke-curing process. Here are some:

• Sprinkle smoked paprika to the sauce.
• Add a drop of liquid smoke to sundried tomato sauce.

It doesn’t get any easier than buying a bag of pre-made ravioli that you can boil at home! I typically buy my family-size (18 oz) bag of Giovanni Rana Mushroom Ravioli from Walmart. It’s located in the fridge section by the potato salads and is commonly seen in one of the produce-section fridges. You can make your own mushroom ravioli at home, but I find this recipe comes together much quicker with prepackaged ravioli.

One of my readers shared her quick sundried tomato paste substitute by pureeing sundried tomatoes and tomato paste. Since sundried tomato paste can be hard to locate you can make your own with very common grocery store ingredients. Here is how:

1. Combine equal parts of tomato paste and sundried tomatoes into a measuring cup.
2. Add vinegar.
3. Blend the tomatoes until pureed.
4. Divide into 2 Tbsp portions and keep stored in the fridge for 1 week or freeze up to 3 months.

If you don’t have any sundried tomatoes, here’s a quick substitute using tomato paste only.

1. Stir together 1 1/2 Tbsp of tomato paste with 1/2 Tbsp white distilled vinegar and 1/2 Tbsp of oil.
2. Season with 1/4 tsp of salt.

Chicken broth adds flavor to any sauce. If you don’t have canned chicken broth use 1/2 cup of water diluted with 1/2 tsp of chicken bullion powder. To omit chicken broth completely substitute with cream or water in place of the broth.

This mushroom ravioli works great for a make-ahead dinner!

To Make-Ahead: Cook pasta to box directions, rinse with cold water, and toss with 2 Tbsp of oil to prevent the pasta from sticking. Make your sauce and cool. Keep stored in the fridge until needed. Reheat sauce and ladle over reheated ravioli before serving. Garnish.

You can freeze uncooked mushroom ravioli right in its original package. When ready to use simply boil for an additional minute from frozen state or cook as directed if thawed.

• Mushroom ravioli- portobello filled mushroom ravioli (Giovanni Rana Brand.)
• butter- add an additional tbsp for ultra-creamy sauce!
• garlic- mince fresh garlic over dried garlic powder!
• sun-dried tomato paste- can buy it in a tube or make your own!
• chicken broth- use water with bullion powder instead!
• heavy cream- use heavy whipping cream for richness!
• Flour- all-purpose flour is ideal.
• Parmesan cheese- Freshly grate Parmesan or Romano cheese!
• Smoked cheese- Smoked fontina cheese, gouda, or provolone can be used as well as plain Monterey Jack Cheese (no one will tell!)
• Tomatoes- diced a fresh vine tomato or Roma!
• Parsley-dried parsley is what Olive Garden uses!

1. Cook ravioli to package instructions; then set aside.

2. In a saucepan, melt butter, add garlic and sauté until fragrant (1 min.)

3. Stir in flour and cook until light brown. Add in the tomato paste and mix thoroughly. Slowly add in the broth and cream.

4. Add in the cheeses and mix until melted.

5. Serve over cooked ravioli and top with dried parsley and diced tomato before serving.