Description
This easy-to-make grilled salmon with homemade Spanish pesto is the perfect mid-week dinner dish, loaded with flavor and done in under 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- FOR THE PESTO:
- 1 Tablespoon Pine Nuts
- 1 Tablespoon Blanched Almonds
- 2 cups Tightly Packed Fresh Spinach
- 1 clove Garlic, Finely Minced
- 3 leaves Basil
- ⅛ cups Shredded Aged Manchego Cheese
- Sea Salt And Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
- 3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Spanish Olive Oil
- FOR THE SALMON:
- 4 Fillets Fresh Salmon
- Extra-virgin Olive Oil As Needed
- 1 whole Lemon
- Cherry Tomatoes, To Serve
Preparation
Heat a small nonstick frying pan with a medium heat and dry roast pine nuts and blanched almonds for 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside.
Roughly chop spinach and add to a mortar. Add finely minced garlic and toasted nuts. Pound with a pestle for about 2 minutes. Add fresh basil and pound everything together for another 3 minutes, until everything is mashed well.
Add aged queso Manchego cheese into the mortar. Season with sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper and mix everything together. Slowly drizzle in about 2 to 3 tablespoons of extra virgin Spanish olive oil while continuing to mix. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
For the salmon, heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Drizzle fresh salmon fillets with a kiss of extra virgin Spanish olive oil and some fresh lemon juice. Season each fillet with sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
Once the pan gets hot, add salmon fillets to the pan and cook for 3 minutes on each side. Remove from pan.
To serve, plate each fillet of salmon. Add some pesto on top of the fillets and a streak of pesto on the side of each dish. Garnish with a slice of lemon and come cut cherry tomatoes on top. Enjoy!