Tonight was not the most enjoyable cooking experience I've had. I learned tonight that jalapenos contain the chemical capsaicin, which is what makes them hot. Not only does it make the pepper hot to eat, but capsaicin is also a skin irritant and a lung irritant. Well, after I chopped up my jalapeno pepper and added it to my hot skillet to cook, I suddenly could hardly breath. My nose and throat felt like it was on fire and I proceeded to have a sneezing and coughing fit that felt like it lasted forever. It was horrible! I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. Two hours later, I'm still sitting here with a scratchy throat.
I also quickly noticed an incredibly painful burning sensation on three of my fingers, especially on my thumb underneath my nail. It was very uncomfortable and burned horribly. I kept trying to wash my hands, but I have since learned that capsaicin is not water soluble, so holding my fingers under running water only provided temporary relief. I searched for jalapeno burn relief and found a few home remedies. Apparently rubbing alcohol works well, but we don't have any. I tried soaking my fingers in vegetable oil, but the burning quickly returned after I took my fingers out. Next I tried soaking my fingers in milk. This has relieved the pain for the longest amount of time so far. That was about 15 minutes ago and I can feel the burning starting to return.
I have never had this kind of a reaction to cooking with jalapenos before. I guess today was my lucky day.
Anyways, on to the recipe...
It was pretty good! The title definitely isn't lying though - it was very zesty! I chose this recipe because I wanted us to start having at least one meatless dinner a week. I tried this the other month with a tofu recipe. Although it was a great recipe, I don't think I fixed it very well and suddenly having tofu after countless nights in a row of meat was a bigger jump than we were ready to handle. So, I thought I would try to ease us into a vegetarian dinner with cheese ravioli. We will work our way back up to tofu!
It was a very easy recipe to put together and didn't take much time at all. Good for when you don't have a lot of time to cook but don't want to resort to going out to eat. It makes 8 servings, so I just cut everything in half so that we wouldn't have so many leftovers. If you like jalapenos, then you'll definitely like this dish! Just please wear your gloves when you handle them!!
Zesty Ravioli Skillet
Pampered Chef Quick Vegetarian Main Dishes
Published by The Pampered Chef, Ltd. in 2010.
Total time: 20 minutes Yield: 8 servings
4 cups loosely packed fresh baby spinach leaves
6 oz provolone cheese, grated
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded
3 garlic cloves, pressed
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes with onions, undrained
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 pkg (24 oz) small frozen cheese ravioli
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1. Wash spinach in large Stainless Mesh Colander; drain. Grate cheese using Ultimate Madoline fitted with grating blade. Set aside spinach and cheese.
2. Add oil to (12-in.) Skillet; heat over medium-high heat 1-3 minutes or until shimmering. Finely chop jalapeno with Food Chopper. Add jalapeno to Skillet; cook and stir 1 minute or until crisp-tender. Press garlic into Skillet with Garlic Press; cook and stir 15-20 seconds or until fragrant.
3. Add tomatoes, salt and black pepper to Skillet; cook and stir with Bamboo Spatula 1-2 minutes or until simmering. Add ravioli; stir to coat. Cook, uncovered, 4-5 minutes or until tender. Stir cream into Skillet. Cook, uncovered, 1-2 minutes or until simmering. Sprinkle spinach over ravioli; cook, covered, 1 minute or until spinach starts to wilt.
4. Remove Skillet from heat. Top with cheese; cover Skillet and let stand 1-2 minutes or until cheese is melted.
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