Shiitake and Chicken Ravioli With Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Roasted red pepper sauce is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It tastes like a million bucks but has practically zero calories -- at least, the way I make it.

For a light dinner recently, I served the sauce over homemade ravioli stuffed with shiitake mushrooms, goat cheese and chicken. I didn't start cooking until 3 p.m., and my friend was due at 6. The ravioli and sauce were so easy to make that I had time to whip up dessert and a big salad.

I'm proud to say that I cheated. I used won-ton wrappers for the ravioli dough and store-bought rotisserie chicken for the filling. Instead of painstakingly roasting the peppers over a grill, I used the oven.

The meal impressed the heck out of my friend. I felt like a charlatan. I made up the recipe for the roasted red pepper sauce as I went along, but I wrote it down and I'll use it again and again. The sauce fits into my low-fat eating plan, and it tastes g reat.

To make the sauce, I cut four large red bell peppers in half and cleaned out the innards. I placed them cut side down on a cookie sheet along with an onion cut in half and roasted them for about 20 minutes.

When the peppers began to blister and char, I popped them into a paper bag and closed the top. This steamed the peppers and loosened the skin.

Years ago I used to spend a long time removing the skins from roasted peppers. I assumed every bit of the skin had to come off. Now I just peel off the skin that can be removed easily and forget about the rest. A little bit of skin won't hurt anything, I 've found.

Finishing the sauce was as easy as pureeing the peppers, onion and some garlic in a food processor, then simmering the sauce briefly with some cream. The whole batch contains just 4 tablespoons of cream, or a little more than 1/2 tablespoon per serving.

The sauce may be served over angel hair or penne pasta instead of ravioli, but the ravioli are easy to make and taste spectacular. Egg-roll wrappers, available in the produce section of most supermarkets, are cut with a round cookie cutter and the edges are smeared with an egg wash. Tablespoons of filling are dolloped on half of the wrappers, covered with the remaining wrappers and sealed. The ravioli cook in boiling water in just four minutes.

I topped the dish with shredded fresh basil, but almost any herb in the garden will do. Thyme or chives would taste fine.

By the way, the red pepper sauce freezes well. Imagine pulling it from the freezer and making a sophisticated dinner in the time it takes to boil the pasta. Ain't cheating grand?