Make it at Home!

Dinner tonight was a spinach and cheese ravioli in a pancetta, mushroom and scallop comfit.  It was very delicious!  While it wasn't a cheap meal, it was a fairly inexpensive take on a more expensive meal and it was made frugal because it was made at home.

A couple of months back, I was in Boston for work.  There was no way that my per diem covered my meals.  The city is too pricey and my companion liked to dine out.  So, I splurged and exceeded my per diem.  It was a nice treat.

When I do splurge on a meal like that, I try to get my money's worth my making it a learning experience.  The meal I had was a pancetta and duck comfit over porcini mushroom ravioli.  It had lots of fresh parm and the ravioli was to die for.

My version made use of supermarket (Rosetti) ravioli.  Next time I try this I will use Gondola ravioli (the pasta store around the corner).  Save a Lot has affordable pancetta and frozen scallops and TBG picked up mushrooms for omelets over the weekend.  I made use of the stock from this week's bird and the cheese I've gotten for pizza.  I reduced the broth and added some milk and half and half. 

The first step was to saute the 'shrooms, then slice the pancetta and fry it.  Then I added the broth, dairy products and reduced.  As I got closer to the end, I put in the scallops and then mixed in the cheese. It was very soupy and it was very yummy.  Alas, I had no bread to sop it up with.  This was a spur of the moment idea and I didn't have time to bake anything.

Dining out can be a big budget drain.  However, if we can replicate similar meals at home it can be a wonderful way to splurge.  I'd get tossed off of Top Chef in the first round, but for us it's OK to just fake it through a serious dish.  It's not hard to do and it's a good way to make something more out of an expensive restaurant meal.