Monday, August 6, 2012

Monday's Pesto Roasted Wild Salmon

This evening I made Pesto Roasted Wild Copper RiverSalmon for dinner.  It is so simple to make and it is a change from the typical flavors normally used for salmon.  While the salmon marinated (for 15 minutes) and roasted for 12 minutes, I made us fresh salads and served the meal with green beans w/ almonds for me and white corn on the cob for hubby.  It was a delicious, healthy meal.  Check out the pics below as well as the simple recipe that follows.  Enjoy!




Pesto Roasted Salmon

Ingredients

1-2 pounds of salmon fillets (depending on the number of people you are serving)
Olive oil for drizzling
Salt & pepper, to taste
Pesto, homemade or store bought (I use Mezzetta -- see below)

Directions:

On a foil lined baking pan, lightly drizzle each salmon filet with olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Spread each filet with a dollop (tablespoon or so) of pesto and set aside to "marinate" for about 15 minutes.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place salmon in oven and immediately reduce heat to 425 degrees and roast/bake for 12 minutes.  Remove salmon from oven and immediately cover tightly with foil for an additional 10-15 minutes to complete the cooking out of the oven under the foil cover.  Enjoy!



My favorite pesto!

4 comments:

CyberSis said...

Hi GGC,

Thanks for suggesting that I try this recipe. We recently replenished our Costco wild salmon "cache" and had this dish tonight. You're sure right about the difference in flavor between the raw and the roasted pesto.

The store where I shopped today didn't have the Mezzetta pesto and the kinds they carried contained some additives that I wasn't crazy about. But they did have lovely *large* bags of fresh basil for $2. So I thought, "why not"? I got the basil and promptly went home and actually *made* the pesto. It was easy-peasy in the food processor. Very stong raw ... but oh, so mild and mellow roasted on top of the salmon. I ended up making too much for the salmon so decided to try some on my salad with a squeeze of fresh lemon. It wasn't half bad that way. The lemon juice somehow seemed to mitigate some of the strong "rawness" of the pesto (or maybe kind of disguised it.)

After supper, we had *cannoli*! No doubt you've already seen my comments there. A wonderful conclusion to a wonderful meal! :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Glad you enjoyed the pesto roasted salmon! Smart idea to make your own pesto, too! Glad you liked the pesto in its "roasted" state -- I just can't handle it much in the raw/fresh state -- I find it overpowering, but I know many people like it that way. I'm sure there are probably other ways you could use your fresh pesto up -- maybe adding to sauteed vegetables near the end of cooking, etc. so it blunts the rawness a bit? Glad you enjoyed the salmon...and thanks! :-)

CyberSis said...

Thanks for the great idea for using the extra pesto. :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Cybersis -- You are welcome! :-)