This one's for you: piquillo pepper hot sauce

I have a weakness for Barry Manilow.
DONT JUDGE. Fess up. You do too. Every single one of us knows we're not supposed to like him, we're not supposed to listen to him. But we do. You might think of him as the "junk food" of pop music, as someone once called him, but fess up again: you've closed the door and eaten a twinkie, or a bag of cheez doodles (that'd be me), or a cylinder of pringles (YUCH). And you have a favorite Barry Manilow song. I KNOW you do. Or, you can't make up your mind which one is your favorite, and you've got a couple of them.
For Annalena, the faves are "Weekend in New England," and "Mandy." "Mandy has associations for me with my dear Aunt. She was working in a pottery store, and I used to go and visit. One day "Mandy" was playing in the background. She was all alone, but for me, and just the way she looked, I thought Barry was singing about her.

"Weekend in New England?" AH. Listen to it sometime. I always think about my dear friends, the ones with whom I "dance the dance," and all of you boys out there KNOW what I mean by that: not flirting, not "bumping," but thinking "what if..." And then leaving and thinking "when will our eyes meet... when will this long journey end," but moreso "When, will I see you again?"

When, will I see you, again? Look at the comma placements. They're important. I think about them all the time. I think this line a lot for one particular friend, to whom I'm dedicating this. I won't tell you who because, to be honest, it is none of your business (sorry to be so curt). But he makes my life better. He makes me HAPPY. What else can you ask? Well:

When, will I see you, again? I have been thinking about him all day, for various reasons, and when I came home , and made this, I thought of this again because, you see, he insists he can't cook.

Well, there's no cooking here. And there's everything in it that you like. So, you make it. Or I'll make it for you and bring you some "when I see you, again?" How's that.

Piquillo peppers are a product of Spain. They have never been grown successfully in the United States. Given the stupid export laws, we don't get them fresh here, we get them jarred. Under salt water, or olive oil, whatever. I'm sure they're not nearly as good as the "real thing," how could they be? But they ARE good.

Now, if you don't have them, you can do this with GOOD quality Italian peppers that have been roasted and jarred. Use it when you want a sauce who's heat you can adjust, (when is that NOT the case), and then refrigerate it, and dole it out. I made it to put over some romesco broccoli (one of my friend's faves), and it will work there, as it will , with many things.

Get a jar of piquillo , or other good quality peppers, and drain the liquid off of them. Put them in a blender. Add one, or two, chopped jalapeno peppers. I used two, and I was lucky to score some red jalapenos at the farmers market this week (incidentally, red jalapenos are simply RIPE green jalapenos). Two will make the sauce incendiary. One will make it pleasantly hot. If you are one of those folks who really love hot food, leave in the seeds.

Puree the stuff. It won't take long. Maybe two minutes. Taste it. Forget about the heat for a minute. You want to adjust for salt. And you're done.

Or are you? When I thought I was finished, I saw a bowl of grape tomatoes that were sitting there, waiting to go bad and make me feel rotten for wasting food. Peppers and tomatoes? I'm not the first one to come up with that combination. In they went. And the sauce is better. But if you don't have them, don't fret.

On broccoli, or other green vegetables. Stirred into bland soup. Are you an egg eater? Omelets. Rice? Of course. Pizzza? DAMN that sounds good.

And you know what, sweetheart? You said you couldn't cook. Well, I KNOW you got a blender and you're gonna make this, because I'm giving you the peppers. And you're gonna bring me some, and I'm gonna smile broader than I smile all day.

This one's for you. The next one better be for me.