Special Delivery Salmon

I had some girlfriends over for dinner. To be honest, they were coming to be blog tasters. I can’t eat fish or shellfish, but I’ve been toying with this recipe for a little while (full and true disclosure, a lot of these recipes are made by Pete, and he loves to eat fish, so I wanted an easy recipe for him) and I needed someone to tell me if it was good or gross. The verdict was good (Yay! Thank you, Scully and Nadine!). While the Special Delivery Salmon are cooking, you can prepare your rice, Israeli Couscous or whatever side you fancy. With the holiday season coming up, this is a great recipe to make for company, as you can spend more time with your friends, and less time in the kitchen. So, without further ado, here are the Special Delivery Salmon envelopes with asparagus and bruschetta.

Prep time: 10 minutes; Cook time: 25 minutes; Serves: 2

What you need:

• 2 salmon fillets, skinless and deboned, roughly 4 – 5 oz each
• 14 stalks asparagus, trimmed
• 12 grape tomatoes, quartered
• 2 small cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small shallot, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 6 leaves basil, finely chopped into ribbons
• a pinch salt
• a pinch pepper

What you do:

• Preheat your oven to 400ºF
• In a bowl, to make the “bruschetta”, mix quartered tomatoes, minced garlic, shallot, basil, salt and pepper

• Add the olive oil and balsamic vinegar and stir

• On a baking sheet, layout a strip of aluminum foil at least 1 foot long
• Brush tinfoil with bruschetta marinade

• Lay asparagus on the foil, brush the asparagus with the bruschetta marinade

• Lay salmon fillet on top of the asparagus

• Top with the bruschetta mix

• Fold foil across to seal and then fold end up to form an envelope (I folded it up lengthwise and then tucked the ends up)

• Place the foil packets on the baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes
• Remove from oven, be careful when you open the packets

• Serve (if you are having guests over, don’t tell them how easy this was to make)