Pre race meal, and my first multi sport race of the year

Going into this weekend I saw my first multi-sport race of the year on the horizon. I needed to fill up all those glycogen stores for Saturday morning’s sprint duathlon. Plus I was going to be racing with (most certainly not against) our own Speed Blogger, Josh(Fast Forward).

So what to eat on Friday night. Well, I figured pasta was a sure fire solution. So what could we make that would be both tasty and easy. Penne with sundried tomato puree and sauteed broccoli with seared sirloin. Sounded good to me. We make a sun dried tomato puree (not quite pesto) at work for many different uses. Add to it some broccoli and beef, and you have a great easy meal. And with the fact that the puree lasts weeks in the fridge, you’ll be pulling it out for all kinds of uses. Some of my faves are; as a condiment for all manner of sandwich, on grilled vegetables, used in making dressings and vinaigrettes, and obviously as pasta sauce.

Here it is:

500gr sun dried tomatoes. I prefer semi dry, very red coloured tomatoes.

5 lg cloves of garlic, smashed

1/2 cup parmesan

1 cup (approx) good quality olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste.

You will notice there is no pine nuts in this mix. Which is why we don’t call it a pesto. I have found over the past couple of years the numbers of people with nut allergies is ever growing. We leave it out of this paste in order to be able to serve it to everyone. Feel free to add 1/3 cup nuts of your choice. You might need to adjust the oil quantity though.

Put all the ingredients in a food processor using only half the oil. Blitz until coming together. Add the remaining oil with the machine running. You are looking for a nicely mixed and slightly chunky mix. Now depending on what you’re using it for, you can process it more or less. It’s up to you. With so little ingredients though, you’ll want to source quality tomatoes and olive oil.

For my pasta I sauteed some blanched broccoli and added it to my pasta. I coated cubed sirloin with freshly ground fennel, coriander, black pepper, and salt. Seared it in a hot pan till rare and added it to the bowl with pasta and broccoli. Spoon some of your amazing sun dried tomato puree over and mix thoroughly. Top with some more parmesan and some chili flakes and serve.

Pretty easy, fast, and loaded with carbs, protein and nutirients from the broccoli (a super food). And you have a sure pre race winner.

As for my race. It didn’t make me fast enough to keep up with Josh, but it helped me shave 9 minutes off of last year’s time. Pretty happy with that. As I’m sure you will be of this versatile sauce.

Enjoy