Poached Salmon with Scalloped Tomatoes

Seafood is one of my favorite things to make on weeknights and when I am busy because it takes so little time to cook.

Poached Salmon with Scalloped Tomatoes is proof positive that just because you are busy, you don’t have to resort to eating icky food.

If you have really fresh ingredients like ripe tomatoes and wild caught sockeye salmon, you don’t have to go much further or add too many extras to have a healthy dinner in fairly short order.

The fish only needs about 10 minutes to cook; once you do a little chopping, slicing, and layering, you’re good to go.

Here’s what you need:

Salmon, Onion, Garlic (not pictured), Tomato, Fresh Thyme, Lemon, Olive Oil, Panko Breadcrumbs* (see note in recipe),  Wine, Dried Oregano, Salt & Pepper.

Click here for a Poached Salmon with Scalloped Tomatoes Shopping List

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Choose a baking dish just big enough to comfortably hold your portions of fish. Pour ½ cup of nice, dry white wine like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio into the bottom of the pan.

The wine will provide the liquid to cook or poach the fish.

Place 2 portions of skinless salmon fillets into the dish.

If your salmon has the skin on one side, you can gently and carefully trim it off with a sharp knife by running it horizontally right under the skin. If you are hesitant about trying this, simply ask the person at your fish counter (your fish monger…I’ve always loved that term) and they will most likely be happy to skin it for you.

I plan on 6-8 ounces of fish per person. By the way, this is a very easy recipe to expand if you need to feed more people.

Season each piece of fish lightly with salt & pepper and a pinch of dried oregano.

Use a garlic press or finely chop 2 small cloves of garlic and sprinkle them on top of the fish.

Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lemon and sprinkle 1 Tablespoon olive oil over the salmon. Divide it as evenly between the two pieces as you can but it doesn’t have to be exact.

Thinly slice 1/4 of a medium onion and arrange a several pieces of onion over each fillet of fish.

This is the recipe to grab the ripest, most beautiful garden fresh tomato you can find.

Cut the tomato (about ½-¾ inch thick) and place 2 slices on top of each piece of fish.

*Breadcrumbs* got a little special * in the ingredient list because I had a Gluten Free Bread Crumb Revelation with this dish.

If you are a gluten eater, your choices are easier. You can either buy some panko breadcrumbs or make your own dried bread crumbs. I think the homemade bread crumbs are one of the things that made the Scalloped Tomatoes especially good so you might still want to pay attention to this next bit…

If you are a Gluten Free person, now is the time to feel liberated from having to shell out money for small, expensive boxes of horrible dusty bread crumbs because YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN!

I personally find most of the store bought gluten free bread to be fairly uninspiring but when you want a BLT sandwich and you are GF, you have to do something for the bread part. I buy a loaf of GF bread like Udis or Glutino and keep it in the freezer.

When I need breadcrumbs, especially in small quantities, I take a couple of slices of bread out and toast them in the toaster. Get them nice and golden brown. You might want to toast them twice.

Get them good and toasty, fairly dried out but not burnt, then tear them into small pieces and grind them up in a food processor (I used my mini one) or blender. Voila! You have quick, toasted GF bread crumbs.

Whether you are GF or not, when you get to the end of a loaf of bread, , keep those extra pieces, even if they are stale, in a bag in the freezer. When you have a little extra time, grind them up, spread them on a cookie sheet, and toast them in a low oven on about 250 degrees until golden brown and dried out.

You can keep them in an airtight container or even back in the freezer and just pull them out when you need them. You can make finely ground breadcrumbs or more of a panko style of larger sized crumbs.

For this recipe, mix 1/2 cup of your toasted bread crumbs (or panko) with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil.

Toss them together until well coated then divide the breadcrumb topping over the tomatoes.

(I increased the amount of topping from the original recipe because I thought it looked too skimpy.)

Put a few leaves of fresh thyme on top of each serving. If you happen to have lemon thyme (I grow it in a pot on my patio), even better.

If you don’t have any fresh thyme, you could substitute a bit of fresh parsley or fresh dill. Dried thyme, however, is NOT a good substitution here as it is way too strong.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes until the fish is cooked through and the scalloped topping nicely browned.

I served my Salmon with Scalloped Tomatoes with some quickly sautéed spinach and some leftover rice pilaf. Pick your favorite green veg or salad and dinner is served!

I’m a big fan of this recipe. The salmon is light and not at all fishy. And those tomatoes! Heaven!

Weeknights deserve real food too!

Here’s the recipe – Adapted from food.com

Poached Salmon with Scalloped Tomatoes