Best Salmon Ever w/ Pepita Gremolata

your weeknight meal and your "impress a crowd" meal

It’s a beautiful thing when the meal you love to make for a simple solo dinner is the same sexy meal you make to impress a crowd.

Salmon is a style icon.

She’s healthy, she’s unpretentious, she’s classically beautiful, and you can really dress her up in anything.

We didn’t really grow up eating salmon in my home, but I do remember the exact day I realized that salmon was an icon.

Around 14 yrs old, I was helping my mom with a catering gig and she made this ginormous beautiful salmon filet that she topped with yogurt and crushed pistachios (will have to share that recipe another time). I remarked how fancy it looked and asked why she made it. She replied with a cleaned up version of “it’s really f*cking easy to make and people freak out when they eat it.” And boy was she was right. Clients requested that salmon just about every time. I even requested it for my high school graduation party because I too wanted my guests to freak out.

My eyes were opened to the world of salmon.

All around me, I noticed people were going goo-goo-ga-ga over salmon. And I get why! It’s pretty consistently delicious, it’s pretty healthy, it serves a wide variety of dietary restrictions, and honestly, you just feel classy ordering it.

But once I started to cook, my mom’s words really sunk in on to why it’s the cook’s choice. It’s truly is so easy to prepare, has minimal prep work involved, cooks quickly, is pretty difficult to mess up, and it can even be served at room temp (a dream for a cook who’s preparing a spread and serve time is in 5 mins, and you’re playing triage on what deserves oven space to be piping hot.)

As an adult with a busy schedule, I realized salmon actually also ticked every box for the ideal weeknight meal. Why save this for only special occasions when it can feed me so well, so affordably, and so easily? Could I, dare say, treat myself without having to splurge or spend hours in the kitchen?

Now, there’s lots of ways to cook salmon (another beautiful thing about it!) Baking it in the oven does the job…but I think that method misses the restaurant quality crisp on top. A grill would be great to get that crisp….if I could legally fit that on my NYC fire escape.

And then, a couple of years ago, my friend Eli showed me how to make the perfect salmon. All you needed was one pan. And it changed my life forever. I was shocked how both delicious and stupidly easy it was.

And I’ll tell you how! The trick is putting the filet face-down on a piping hot cast iron pan for 3 minutes (hello restaurant quality charr!) and then putting it directly into the oven at 350F for ~5 minutes (hello juiciness in the middle!) Yes - that’s IT!

Note: if you don’t have a cast iron, then you can adapt this recipe by first searing on a pan and then transferring to a sheet pan for the oven. However, I will say that I HIGHLY rec getting a cast iron. I use it for 80% of my cooking and it will last you forever if you take care of it.

And then you can have fun dressing her up.

My friend Lisa once served me a salmon topped with gremolata - and again, my life was changed. Gremolata is an Italian parsley condiment. If you tuned in last week, I’m aware I just showed you a popular South American parsley condiment, chimicurri. What can I say, I’m having a parsley condiment kind of month!

Gremolata is super fresh, a little zippy, and really brings out the flavors of the salmon. Oh, and this also comes together in less that 5 mins. Like the chimichurri, there are so many variations of gremolata. But I’ve adapted this one that uses toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) to add a little bit of a crunch.

Now, when you put these all-stars together, you have a freaking gourmet meal on your hands. I truly will make this for just a little weekday lunch for myself and I’ll also bring it to events to charm the crowd.

Go on with your bad self, Salmon!

Best Salmon Ever

Ingredients

Salmon filet

Salt

Pepper

Oil

Let’s do it!

1. Set your oven to 350 F

2. Rinse salmon filet and pat dry

3. Salt and pepper the filet

4. Heat cast iron on medium high heat with enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan

5. Test the pan by sprinkling a bit of water - if it sizzles right away, then it’s time.

6. Place the salmon face down (skin side up) for 3 mins

7. Without flipping it, put the cast iron directly into the oven for 5 mins (this can be variable based on how juicy or dry you like your salmon. To see if it’s ready to your liking, you can do the fork test— lightly pull the salmon apart with a fork and see if it flakes off.) Of course, the larger the salmon filet, the longer it will need to be in the oven. Be prepared to add an extra 5 mins if you’re doing a filet large enough for 4 guests.

8. Note: if don’t have cast iron, you can also can sear the salmon on a teflon coated pan and then transfer it to a sheet pan when it’s time to go into the oven.

Pepita Gremolata

serves 2

Ingredients

1 head parsley, chopped

1-2 garlic, grated

1 lemon, zested

½ lemon-1 full lemon, juiced

¼ cup pepitas, chopped finely

Salt + Pepper

Combine in a small bowl, taste and adjust as needed. This is totally to your preference, so trust your taste buds if it needs more lemon juice, salt, or pepper. Set aside until ready to top on the salmon.

Happy cooking.

Love ya mucho,

Tessa