Herb-Crusted Sautéed Salmon Fillets with Pistou

Name: Herb-Crusted Sautéed Salmon Fillets with Pistou
Yield: Makes 6 Main-Course Servings
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: salt (or brine); pepper; six 6- to 8-ounce salmon fillets with the skin and pin bones removed (fillets should be no more than 1 inch thick or herb coating will burn before fish is cooked); 6 tablespoons total of fresh or dried chopped herbs such as thyme, marjoram, oregano, savory, or rosemary, alone or in combination; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 2 tablespoons salt; 4 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped fine, or two cups assorted cherry tomatoes, quartered; 2 cloves garlic, chopped fine and crushed to a paste with the side of a chefs’ knife; leaves from 1 large bunch basil (about 1 tightly packed cup), washed and spun dry; salt; ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil; 1 egg yolk (optional)

Preparation info

Makes
6
Main-Course Servings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Simply Salmon

By James Peterson

Published 2001

About

Piston is the southern French version of Genoa’s pesto. Pesto is made with basil and garlic but also contains pine nuts, sometimes walnuts, and usually Parmigiano Reggiano. Pistou, a mixture often dolloped into vegetable soup, usually contains neither cheese nor nuts but frequently contains tomatoes. Purists insist that pistou (and pesto) be made by hand in a large mortar, but most of us don’t have a mortar, much less one large enough to do the job efficiently. So I give in an