Cooking for One is Pathetic but this Pesto is Delicious

Garlic scape, basil, parsley and pistachio pesto. Just for me.

I was at a dinner party recently with a small group of very close friends and one peripheral friend. I think this peripheral friend is a really swell guy — let’s call him Enzo . I’ve met him several times and have always found him to be charming.

On this particular occasion, I spent dinner seated snugly between Enzo and my very good friend Lark, who I have known since junior high. At one point during dinner I asked Enzo, who I know to be a trained chef working contrarily in the high tech industry, if he ever gets a chance to cook these days. “Oh yes,” he said in his magnificent French accent, “Usually a few times a week.”

“Oh cool,” I replied. “Like, just playing around with recipes or whatever at home?”

Enzo looked at me like I must have had a stroke. “Oh I never cook for myself,” he said with the corners of his mouth turned down the way people do when they’re disgusted. “No one does that. I cannot think of one single thing more pathetic than cooking for one. I mean, no. I would never.”

Lark turned to me with his usual benign smile. “Joslyn, isn’t that literally the name of your book?”

It’s true. I wrote an e-cookbook called Cooking for One. It’s full of recipes for dishes you can make for yourself. I wrote it in about my third consecutive year of being absolutely single. And writing it was for sure one of the most humbling things I have ever done.

I’ve since told several friends the story about the dinner party — and about how Lark and I got the giggles so badly we almost ruined everything — and most of them have said something along the lines of “It’s true. Cooking for yourself is pretty sad. I mean, why bother?”

Well, I’ll tell you why bother. Because I like good food, and I like to cook. Cooking, for me, is:

1. Relaxing
2. Creative
3. Self-nurturing
4. Fun!
5. Healthy

Cooking is also way more productive than drinking wine (which I don’t do anymore, sadly) or popping painkillers (which I would do if I could get my hands on some — ping me!). Yes, I would prefer to cook for someone else (too). Yes, I overshare on Instagram when I get excited about something I’m cooking. And yes, I often wonder if I’m going to choke on a pistachio and die alone, writhing  on my kitchen floor. But until that happens, I’m okay with cooking for one.

This morning I went to the farmer’s market and picked up some green things. I made this pesto. For just myself. It’s delicious.

Bounty from the farmer’s market on this fine summer solstice weekend: basil, parsley, pistachios, and garlic scapes

I chopped up the garlic scapes and sauteed them in olive oil for a few. Garlic scapes are the stalks of garlic plants. They taste very subtly garlicky and I like eating them because they usually get thrown out in the garlic-growing process. When you eat them, you’re contributing to the harmony of the entire environment and gaining massive karma points. Fact.

I have one kitchen gadget that I use for everything: my 15-year old Osterizer blender. It only has an on/off switch. It’s one of my favorite objects. I used it to pulverize these pistachios.

Sauteed garlic scapes, pistachios, basil, parsley, lots of extra virgin olive oil and just a little bit of parmesan cheese in the blender.

By the way, if you’re the sort who needs an actual recipe (I confess, I am) here’s the one I poached this idea from, loosely. Thanks, Agricultural Institute of Marin!