Parchment Paper Salmon

Maybe everyone else is already familiar with this method of cooking but it was a new and wonderful discovery for me. You layer the ingredients in a large folded piece of parchment paper, fold the edges over and let it steam away in the oven. Mike and I absolutely love this recipe. And it's from Martha Stewart so it has to be good, right?


1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon salt-packed capers, rinsed well and coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 large russet potato, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
2 shallots, thinly sliced
3 ounces baby spinach
2 (6 ounce) fillets salmon, 1 1/2-inch thick, skinned
1 lemon, thinly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place a rimmed baking sheet in oven to heat. Cut parchment to size.
2. Stir together butter, capers, parsley, and garlic in a small bowl;
3. Divide potato slices between parchment rectangles, layering them in stacks to form a bed.
4. Top each bed of potatoes with one quarter of the shallots followed by half the spinach. Place salmon fillets on top of spinach. Divide remaining shallots evenly between packets. Top each salmon fillet with 2 lemon slices Dot with caper butter; season with salt and pepper.
5 Fold parchment paper over ingredients, at the crease. Starting with one end of the paper and keeping edges together, make small overlapping pleats the length of the paper, creasing tightly as you go and shaping the edge into an arc.

6. Bake until packets have puffed, 15 to 18 minutes.



I'll admit this doesn't look beautiful but it is delicious.

Pasta with Pesto, Potatoes, and Green Beans

I had a pasta similar to this in Italy a couple of summers ago, which was amazingly delicious so I decided to try this one. Chris and I are both big pesto fans, and this dish turned out really well. Chris said it was the best dinner that I have ever made.

I feel I should qualify that statement by letting you all know that I have made Chris toast for dinner before- so while this is very good it is not the peak of my culinary expertise which is as yet undiscovered.

This meal is essentially a one pot meal if you have the pesto made before hand or if you use store bought pesto.

Recipe from Great Food Fast- Thank You Martha

The Pasta

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 waxy potatoes
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
8 ounces short tubular pasta- I used penne
8 ounces green beans, trimmed and halved- I used frozen green beans
1/2 cup pesto (see pesto recipe below)

1- Peel and cut the potatoes into 1-inch cubes; place in a large pot of water and bring to a boil.

2-Add 1 tablespoon salt and the pasta; return to a boil and cook for 2 minutes

3- Add the green beans. Return to a boil; cook until the vegetables are tender and the pasta is al dente according to package instructions.

4- Drain; toss with pesto and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The Pesto

1/2 cup pine nuts or walnuts- I used the pine nuts
4 cups fresh basil leaves loosely packed
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 garlic clove
Salt & Pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spread the pine nuts on a rimmed baking dish/sheet; toast in the oven until golden and fragrant, tossing occasionally, 5 to 8 minutes. Let cool completely. *

2- In a food processor, combine the toasted nuts, basil leaves, Parmesan, and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Process until finely chopped. With the machine running pour the olive oil in a steady stream through the feed tube; process until smooth. **

* I did not actually follow these toasting direction very well- I do not think my nuts were fragrant and I tossed them straight into the mix from the oven. It still turned out well.

**We do not have a food processor so I figured the blender would work- it did, but I would recommend putting the blender on a low setting as you pour in the olive oil-I realized this as I had the blender set to liquefy and pesto started exploding from the hole in the middle of the blender lid as I added the oil.