Salmon with Olive Oil and Citrus

During the week it’s hard to come up with something quick and easy for dinner. With this base recipe for cooking salmon you can prepare a fabulous dinner without a recipe and you’ll have perfectly cooked salmon every time. No more dry tasteless salmon for me.

I discovered this technique in Alison Romans’ cookbook, Dining In.  Normally I cook salmon at a high temperature for 10 minutes or so.  With this recipe you’ll cook it slow at a lower temperature.  It stays moist from the bath of olive oil and it’s so much easier to get it to just the right temperature without overcooking.

You won’t believe how easy this is to prepare.  Just salt and pepper the fish and lay it in a pan not much bigger than your fish.  Pour olive oil into the pan so that it comes up the side of the fish but not so much that it covers it.  Then place whatever citrus you like on top of the fish and in the olive oil. I used some blood oranges and lemons. Add whatever herbs you have on hand along with some red pepper flakes. Seriously, this will take you 5 minutes.  Then just bake at a low temperature for 20-30 minutes depending on how thick your fish is. Aim for 145º with a meat thermometer depending on how rare you like your fish.

This is great if you’re having friends over. You can have it ready to go in the oven before they arrive and all you do is bake it.  If you’re cooking for 1 or a smaller group, adjust the size of your pan so that it’s just slightly larger than your piece of fish.  With this recipe you can serve fish with confidence that it won’t be overcooked.

Adapted from Alison Roman, Dining In

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Salmon with Olive Oil and Citrus

Salmon baked in olive oil is a fail-safe way to have perfect salmon every time.  Add some lemons and oranges and hot pepper flakes and you have an easy healthy dinner that takes no time to prepare. Great for dinner parties or a week night dinner. 

• Author: Barbara Curry
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 lb salmon
• salt and pepepr
• 1-2 lemons, sliced thin
• 1-2 oranges, sliced thin
• 6 sprigs thyme
• 1-2 sprigs rosemary
• 1-2 springs oregano
• 1-2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ¾ cups olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300º.
2. Salt and pepper both sides of salmon and place in a baking dish. Top with sliced lemons and oranges that have been sliced very thin. ( I used a mandolin). Place fresh herbs on the top and around the salmon. Pour olive oil over the salmon so that it is resting in a pool of olive oil. The amount will depend on the size of your fish and baking dish. Sprinkle red pepper flakes over the salmon and also in the olive oil on the sides.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillet. It should start turning opaque around the edges.

Notes

Add just enough olive oil to cover the surface of the pan, it does not need to cover the fish.