Here’s a salmon dish made for summer. Fresh tomatoes, fresh chopped herbs, a few shallots, lemon juice, balsamic and olive oil make a perfect sauce to accompany baked salmon fillets.
Salmon Provencal Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 large plum tomatoes
- 3 shallots, coarsely chopped
- 1 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh tarragon
- 1 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh basil
- 1 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh chives
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- Salt
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 4 salmon fillets, about 5-6 ounces each
Method
1 Preheat oven to 400°F.
2 Blanch the tomatoes by plunging them into a pot of simmering salted water for 15-30 seconds, then plunging them into ice water for 1 minute. Drain the tomatoes and peel off and discard the skin. Cut the tomatoes into quarters, remove the core, seeds, and dice the flesh.
3 In a large bowl combine the tomatoes, shallots, tarragon, basil, and chives. In another bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil and salt to taste. Add to the tomato mixture, toss to coat.
4 Arrange salmon fillets on an oiled baking sheet without crowding. Drizzle with olive oil and season lightly with salt. Bake until salmon is barely cooked through and lightly browned on the edges, 10-12 minutes.
5 To serve, spoon a couple tablespoons of the tomato mixture over each fillet. Serve immediately.
Yield: Serves 4.
Ok – so basil, tomato and salmon is NOT a bad combination! Hooray! I almost did this last night while poaching a filet (thanks for that recipe), and worried that the flavors would not work together. Glad I have a thumbs-up from Elise to try it again. And, speaking of poached salmon, I don’t know that I’ll make it any other way. It was more flavorful than I thought it would be, and incredibly moist. Thanks!
One restaurant I worked at long ago served a sage-flour dusted sauteed salmon fillet with a rich lemon butter cream sauce full of tomatoes, basil and capers. I could never resist it! Your recipe was so delicious and so much easier (and healthier) we never missed the butter sauce at all. I’m thinking chopped Kalamata olives or artichokes might be really good in it too.
I live in Alaska and am always looking for new ways to cook salmon. Freshness in produce is not always the best so for this recipe I used canned italian seasoned tomatoes and dried italian seasoning and it turned out really well.
My fiance and I had this last night for dinner – so wonderful!!
I’ve been wanting a new recipe for salmon, I just wish I’d seen this earlier! Cannot wait to try it. I love tomato and balsamic vinegar together, and never would have thought of having it with salmon. Have fun on vacation!
I am so glad to see this recipe! A restaurant by our house does something very similar to this and I always feel guilty about ordering it – they are way overpriced! But now I can make this at home – Thanks Elise :)
If you like the combination of tomatoes and salmon, try poaching your fillets in what’s essentially a Bloody Mary: tomato juice, a couple shots of vodka, horseradish, Worcestershire, lemon juice, hot sauce, pepper, celery salt, and a couple ribs of chopped celery. Reduce the cooking liquid down to some semblance of a sauce before serving.
Any recipe that’s from a book entitled Slim Forever is a must try :) I’m very eager to try this recipe since I’m always looking for ways to serve tasteful yet simple salmon.
Hey Elise!
This looks really great- a really perfect summer dish with lots of fresh flavors!
I made this tonight as my wife was hankering for salmon and it was fantastic. Instead of baking, we
grilled the salmon over charcoal. The tomato mixture was divine and that was using apple cider vinegar instead of balsamic due to not reading the recipe closely enough. Still excellent! Next time I’ll have to try it with balsamic as this recipe is a definite repeat. Oh, and I’ll definitely be trying the bloody mary poaching recipe mentioned above too.
I just made this with striped bass and heirloom tomatoes from the greenmarket. It was so good! Summer on a plate. Thanks so much for the recipe!
-katrina
This is so beautiful, Elise! I love the simplicity and the robust flavors.
This recipe is wonderful! I have already made it twice. I love that I can take advantage of all the fragrant herbs in my community garden with this dish. Thanks again.
Although I’m a bit late in posting this, the dish was a hit for my date and I this past summer! I’m looking it up to make it for my parents now.
Thanks for providing such a simple, elegant and delicious recipe.
This was absolutely FABULOUS! My sweetie ate almost an entire 9×12 dish of it!