A Mediterranean Meal – Salmon, Asparagus, And Delicious Homemade Panzanella

Eliza and crew came down on Sunday to drop off the items Wende brought home from Italy for us and I opted to make yet another Mediterranean meal.  While I don’t usually think of salmon as a Mediterranean dish, it was on several Italian restaurant menus and I wanted a dish that goes with the Panzanella (tomato and bread salad) that I wanted to serve.  Even though we’ve made several Mediterranean Salmon dishes in the past, I did a little web search and found this recipe for Mediterranean Salmon on the “Cuisine With Me” blog and I liked it as I had the ingredients on hand.

Before the meal,  we had a little prosecco taste test comparing the Lamarca brand that we get from Food City with the Montesquieu brand that Wende buys.  The first difference was that the Lamarca was barely yellow while the Montesquieu was the normal light straw color and after tasting, the Montesquieu was clearly more like what we drank in Italy so it will be the go-to for now.

On to the food.

Mediterranean Salmon

Ingredients:

2 lbs salmon filet skin on

1 ea lemon sliced thin

½ cup Kalamata olives pitted

3 cups cherry tomatoes (I used uncut grape tomatoes)

1 tbsp capers

½ ea red onion

2 ea garlic cloves sliced thin

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp fresh rosemary or 1 tsp dry

½ tbsp fresh oregano or ½ tsp dry

½ tbsp fresh thyme or ½ tsp dry

½ tsp Salt

Fresh ground pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil on it.

3. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper on the skin side of the salmon and rub it on gently. Place the fish skin down onto the parchment paper. Sprinkle the flesh side with another pinch of salt and pepper.

4. Slice the lemons in thin slices. Slice the red onion and garlic in thin slices. Drain and rinse the capers. Wash and dry your herbs.

5. Arrange a few lemon slices on top of your fish and the rest around it. Arrange the tomatoes, olives, garlic, and half of the onion slices around the fish. Sprinkle the rest of the onion and the capers on top of the fish. Sprinkle the herbs all over.

5. Drizzle with olive oil all over, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

6. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the fish is done to your liking and flakes easily with a fork. The exact cooking time will depend on the size and thickness of your fish.

7. Take out of the oven and rest 5 minutes before serving.

Note: I added the tomatoes, olives, onions, cucumber, and capers to a bowl then seasoned with the herbs and tossed with olive oil before adding to the sheet pan.

Panzanella

I wanted to make panzanella to go with our salmon and opted to go with Ina Garten’s recipe and I adjusted it for ¾ of a recipe as shown below.

Panzanella – Adapted from Ina Garten

Ingredients:

2¼ tablespoons good olive oil

4½ cups French bread, cut into ¾ inch cubes

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

1½ large, ripe tomatoes, cut into ¾ inch cubes

¾ hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, seeded, and sliced ½ inch thick

¾ red bell pepper, seeded and cut into ¾ inch squares

¾ yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into ¾ inch squares

¼ red onion, cut in half and thinly sliced

15 large basil leaves, coarsely chopped

2¼ tablespoons capers, drained

For the vinaigrette:

¾ teaspoon finely minced garlic

3/8 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2¼ tablespoons Champagne vinegar

3/8 cup good olive oil

3/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add the bread and salt; cook over low to medium heat, tossing frequently, for 10 minutes, or until nicely browned. Add more oil as needed.

2. For the vinaigrette, whisk all the ingredients together.

3. In a large bowl, mix the tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, yellow pepper, red onion, basil, and capers, toss and season with S&P.

4. Add the bread cubes and toss with the vinaigrette. 

5. Allow the salad to sit for about half an hour for the flavors to blend.

Lemon Pepper Asparagus

The final dish was Lemon Pepper Asparagus using the recipe from “Vegetable Recipes”  which I didn’t reproduce here.  Per the website - "Fresh lemon, garlic, and black pepper combine to make lemon pepper asparagus simple and simply irresistible. Make this just once and you'll build meals around it throughout asparagus season!"

I forgot shots of the cooked pans but this is my plate.

The Verdict:

The asparagus was delicious as expected for fresh from the garden spears.  The salmon was very good but we have made other Mediterranean versions that we prefer.  The panzanella was excellent and the highlight of the meal so while this was my first time, it won’t be the last time I make it using this recipe.  We ate it all but a small serving and had there been six adults the nine servings would have all gotten eaten - I highly recommend it.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

5/18/25 event dates