Tuscan Salmon

After finally moving in with the significant other, I’ll probably be updating this more often since I now have access to a dishwasher, microwave, actual counter space, and good lighting. I had about 3 square feet of counter space at my old place and a range about half the size of a normal one, so it’ll be nice to have a full kitchen again. That being said….

I have been wanting to make this for quite some time, but every recipe I ever found online seemed to make this very heavy feeling, or didn’t use ingredients I was in favor of.

Concept: Saute onions until soft, add garlic and chopped tomatoes. Add paste when tomatoes begin to cook down, then slowly add in cream, spinach, lemon juice, and spices. Bake the fish on a cooking sheet until mostly cooked through; add fish to sauce and top with parmesan and bake until melty.

Instructions:

Take about 1/2 to a 1/3 of the sweet onion, dice, and caramelize over the stove over a medium to low heat. Use my other tip Caramelizing Onions if you need assistance with this. Butter, salt, and low heat oil is your friend. Traditionally, this takes a while. If you want to speed up the process, as the onions begin to become translucent, sprinkle white sugar. Otherwise, they’ll reach brown and buttery and delicious all on their own. Once they start to brown, add in minced garlic. We don’t measure garlic in this house, this you measure with your heart. If you’re using fresh garlic, add it when the onions go translucent, before they brown.

As the onions and garlic brown and get sweet, add in the cherry tomatoes. This will be another round of “just let it sit and cook”, as you’re waiting until they become wrinkly and darker. Add in a couple tablespoons of tomato paste as this starts to happen. As the tomatoes begin to thicken and redden, add in cream, a couple tablespoons at a time until the desired consistency is obtained. I liked mine a little on the thinner side so I had more sauce. I also used the other half of the stick of butter at this step, because butter is fat and fat means flavor. Add in spinach, and continue to cook on low until the spinach is softened within the sauce. If you accidentally made your sauce too thin, add some parmesan to the sauce to help thicken it.

About this time, have your oven ready to go at 350 so you can bake the salmon portions for about 15 with a generous helping of salt, pepper, and olive oil coating.

Finish the sauce with basil, dried red pepper flakes, oregano, pepper, and lemon juice to taste. The lemon juice will cut through a lot of the “heaviness” of this recipe. I used probably about 2 tbsp of it altogether. As for the salt, probably use more than you think, but taste as you go. Salt brings out all of the flavor and works in a “bell curve” style in terms of bringing out the goodness.

Once the sauce is done, put the fish into the pan with the sauce. Top with the parmesan cheese, and return this pan with the fish back into the oven until it is nice and melty.