Bake Salmon In This Italian Sauce For 10x The Flavor

There are endless ways to prepare salmon at home. On one end of the spectrum, you have uber-easy weeknight standbys that call for little more than salt and pepper to get dinner on the table. On the other, you have those fancier composed dishes like salmon en croûte, which nods to the traditional beef Wellington for a sensational seafood dish. And if pesto salmon has escaped your radar thus far, you've been missing out on a plate that splits the difference, seeming plenty refined while requiring minimal effort in the kitchen.

Pairing salmon with pesto works so brilliantly because the sauce already includes some of the elements that make salmon great, whether on their own or in similar configurations: extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, and fresh basil leaves. That's already your cooking fat, aromatic, and herb components, all in one scoop. Most standard pestos also typically include pine nuts and Parmesan cheese, which add some welcome texture and umami, respectively. 

So, instead of lovingly applying each of these flavorful, individual elements to your fish in succession, you can literally just pat the seafood dry, shake on some salt and pepper, spread a tablespoon or two of pesto atop the fillet, and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for around 12 to 15 minutes for a plate that looks, and tastes, like it took considerably more work. Want some crunch? Press a bit of panko breadcrumbs into the pesto before cooking to form a crust. The only complicating factor is whether you want to make the pesto from scratch, but even that isn't terribly difficult.

The ideal pesto for your no-fuss baked salmon is often just the one you have on hand. That said, making the sauce yourself is almost too simple to skip. While traditionalists use a mortar and pestle, you can toss the basil, oil, garlic, nuts, and parm into a food processor and pulverize until it reaches a uniform shade of green and smooth texture. Be as precise about the proportions as you wish (generally 4 cups of fresh basil leaves for every two garlic cloves, ½ cup of Parmesan, ¼ cup of pine nuts, and ¾ cup of extra virgin olive oil) or eyeball it and add more garlic, swap the nuts (walnuts are a popular choice), or even skip the cheese per your preference. A clever pesto switcheroo is using an infused oil, which further tailors the sauce to your taste.

There are also some lovely premade pestos on the market, and any of our best-reviewed store-bought pestos will do your salmon right. Should you accidentally end up with something underwhelming, however, you can also enhance pre-packaged pesto with common pantry items, like crushed chile flakes. Just make sure to taste it in advance if you haven't gone the scratch-made route. As a hearty, fatty fish with a naturally robust flavor, salmon stands up beautifully to pesto's punchiness, but if something has a notable amount of extra salt, for example, your fillets won't need that extra shake before coating. The same goes for any flavor in a higher presence than expected.