Food For Thought: Pistachio Pesto and Failure

I was craving pesto, but wanted to try something new because going to Oberlin and living in LA made pine nuts too basic I guess. The pistachios did provide a nice sweetness, but the dish didn’t meet my expectations, and I thought the experience of making it provided a good opportunity to talk about the most fun part of life: failure.

So yeah, let’s talk about all the shit I fucked up I guess. First of all, I didn’t add any salt, because the pistachios were salted, and Romano cheese is salty, but it still needed more. I also added some chives to the pesto because I had some leftover in the fridge, and I was trying to be a good person and use them before they went bad, and they’re green so I thought everything would be fine, but no good deed goes unpunished. They totally dulled the fresh punch of the basil that makes pesto what it is. Sad. I almost didn’t include this last one because it’s so shameful, but it would be so antithetical to this whole thing, so I have to. I overcooked the frickin pasta, ever so slightly, and I’m sure my al dente standards are a bit extra, but yeah, sorry mom.

Okay, so what the fuck is the point of all that failure? Growth is the point. Growth is really important, but it’s also important to note that you don’t grow just by failing. You have to learn from your mistakes. So what did I learn? To not get lost in the sauce, literally. Chives don’t belong in pesto, and to never underestimate the value of the details, like tasting for proper salt and doneness.

Cooking is creative. You get to make choices: which ingredients to use, and how much of each to use, which is what makes it fun, but with that freedom comes great responsibility. Not really, unless you’re an actual chef, or trying to impress a cutie. Regardless, there’s always the chance that what you make might taste bad, and I think this fear can prevent people from getting into cooking. I think it’s the same fear that can paralyze artists, like myself, from creating. It’s the same human fear that can hold all of us back in life, but whether it’s a dish, or a creative project, or a relationship, you can’t let that fear, of failure, get in the way. You have to let it rip. Living without fear doesn’t come without failure, in fact it comes with way more, but it gives us the chance to learn, and grow, which is what makes life beautiful.