Ravioli Thingee

This was a solid "9". Prep time: under ten minutes. As with all my cooking, this was improvised, and isn't something one could affix a name to.

Recipe:
    - 1/2 cup leftover stir-fried Swiss chard (originally prepared with lots of garlic and ginger and a splash of soy sauce, and stems cooked two minutes longer than leaves)
    - 5 Trader Joe's "Beef Bolognese Ravioli"


Boil and drain ravioli.

Reheat chard in covered nonstick sauce pan over low heat (no oil, no moisture; I wanted it dry).

Splash good olive oil and either some balsamico or else this magic ingredient (made from balsamic must) into a large bowl, and add ravioli.

Cut roughly* into quarters, add chard, and stir.


* - A word about "rough" cutting. I posted a recipe to Chowhound once that called for cutting chicken roughly with a butter knife directly in the pan, and a disbelieving poster questioned this. The answer, here and there, is that precision (in cutting and in any other artistic move) is an important skill to acquire, but should never be the sole approach in your arsenal. Precisely-cut chicken in that case, and precisely-cut ravioli in this case, would not be right for the intentions of the dish. Precision, in other words, is not always preferable.

I'm reminded of the many times I've seen stuffy classical violinists play a jazz piece with the same precision they'd apply to Mozart. It sounds terrible. It's not what the situation calls for, so it's bad musicianship, even though they're applying the skills drilled into them by their teachers. Good artists don't reflexively apply the same skill set in every instance, just because they can. If you don't maintain some pliancy (in life and in art), you'll be condemned to stuffy, narrow, priggishness.