My absolute favorite meals are those made on the fly with leftover ingredients in my refrigerator. This week I just so happened to have a lot of leftover food and it somehow all magically meshed well together. Don’t ask why, but I had an insane amount of feta cheese sitting in my refrigerator so with that in mind, I entered my kitchen and with the food before me, I started to salivate over the idea of making some kind of pesto. I had arugula, parsley, and parmesan and on the counter, some leftover pistachios. I’m a firm believer that no pesto is complete without basil, so I cheated and ran around the corner to pick some up. Since I always keep some quinoa pasta around, I whipped together my impromptu pesto, tossed it on the pasta and in a last moment of creativity, topped it with a poached egg. Had there been enough, the only thing that could have made this dish better would have been some more crushed pistachios toasted and sprinkled on top. When your imagination gets going, sometimes it just doesn’t stop. I’d like to thank my eyes that were bigger than my stomach when purchasing too much feta cheese for this delicious and spontaneous meal. With tasty flavors and textures, it’s one that I definitely plan to make again. Here’s how to prepare it…

3 cups arugula
1 1/2 cups of basil
1/2 cup feta cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup pistachios
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs parsley
1 clove garlic
1 box quinoa spaghetti (reserve cooking liquid)
2 eggs
2 tbs white vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
parmesan cheese for garnish

In a food processor, combine arugula, basil, feta, olive oil, pistachios, lemon, parsley and garlic. Blend until fully chopped and mixed. In a medium pot, cook quinoa pasta for about 9 minutes and drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid. While the pasta is cooking, bring water and 2 tbs of white vinegar to boil for the eggs. Add pasta back into pot and mix in pesto. Add a small amount of cooking liquid to help mix the pesto and pasta together. Cover to keep warm while you poach the eggs. Break each egg into a small cup and pour into the simmering vinegar water. Bring whites towards the yolk with a spoon and remove after about 4 minutes. Transfer pasta to two bowls and top with egg, garnish with parmesan and season with salt and pepper.