Extemporaneous Pesto

Here’s a sad fact: I spent a lot of my life being totally clueless as to what I’m good at, even when it was very obvious. I spent 90 percent of my classroom hours in high school scribbling furiously in my notebook, producing a continuous stream of consciousness account of my life, yet it never once occurred to me that I should perhaps join the school newspaper.

In college, I participated in debate and at my very first event I won a prize (a pewter plate!) for getting the most extemporaneous speaking points. I knew from my countless hours of STA vocab flash card drills that extemporaneous meant “composed, performed, or uttered spur of the moment: impromptu.” I was so proud! So, of course, I instantly quit and resumed my full time extra curricular activity of chasing the wrong boys.

Now that I’ve caught on to the importance to playing to my strengths in life, I often think of that one debate match and the plate I won. I no longer beat myself up about quitting. Instead, I think of it as a confidence builder whenever I need to create a first draft, interview an expert, or go on a job interview. I remind myself that I once won a prize for being articulate, creative, and smart on the fly. But you know where else those skills apply? In the kitchen. I usually try to plan my meals for the week, but sometimes something goes wrong.

Take last night: we were supposed to have pizza, but it turned out we were out of mozzarella. So pizza was out. We could have gone out, but I sized up my refrigerator and pantry and assembled the following on my counter:

Sun-dried tomatoes
A half box of bucatini (leftover from this meal)
A roasted red pepper
garlic
red pepper flakes
Romano cheese
A handful of raw almonds

It was all coming together in my mind.

First I toasted the almonds. While they went about their business, I put two cloves of garlic and about 2 ounces (I am just guesstimating; I did not measure) of cubed Romano in the bowl of the food processor. I pulsed until they were minced.

Meanwhile, I had the tomatoes softening up in a bowl of hot water and I chopped up my red pepper. When the almonds were lightly golden, I added them, the tomatoes, the red pepper, and the red pepper flakes to the food processor and whirled it up until it was a paste. Then I streamed in olive oil (maybe a quarter cup?) until it was a lovely emulsified sauce.

I made much more than I needed for dinner, but this kind of thing freezes well and is always handy to have. It would be a lovely bruchetta topping, great in tuna salad, with warm chickpeas, etc.

I’m sorry I don’t have more specific measurements or a real recipe for you, but the thing is, you are totally capable of making this sauce with this information. Maybe you’ll add a confidence-building extemporaneous twist of your own.