salmon plated

Pigeon’s Puttanesca Recipe

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Puttanesca is delicious, salty, briny flavours packed full of umami. You’d expect nothing less from a recipe with so much speculation in its name! Do you know the history linked to puttanesca sauce?

Well, for many years, decades even, sugo alla puttanesca was linked to an interesting origin story; it is said that the sauce is made by ladies of the night in between clients or that the fragrance of the sauce and of the ladies are, well…similar. Another spin of the story is that the sauce was made by the ladies so that the amazing smells would lure more clients into their homes. The confusion of the exact origins of the sauce stems from the fact that the word puttanesca has a few different meanings.

Irregardless of the origins of the name, this dish will have you lining up for seconds and will make your mouth water just thinking about it. Think of the origin story as a bonus, fun dinner table story!

**no pigeons were harmed in the making of this recipe

Prep: 45 mins ∙ Cook: 40 mins ∙ Makes: 15 serves ∙ Difficulty: Easy

INGREDIENTS
  • 2.5kg salmon fillets
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 onion
  • 1-2 cups white wine
  • 1 big can tomatoes
  • 1-2 cups chopped pitted black olives
  • 1 jar capers
  • 2 cups fresh basil
DIRECTIONS
  1. Dust fish in flour (GF or rice flour is good too)
  2. In a large nonstick frypan heat 1-2 tablespoons of oil over a high heat.
  3. Add fish and sear both sides (about 1 minute per side). You can splash in a bit of white wine when searing the second side, but you don’t have to.
  4. Transfer the fish to a baking tray.
  5. Turn down heat to medium and heat some more oil in the same frypan.
  6. Add onion and garlic and saute for a few minutes.
  7. Add the wine and cook until reduced by half, about 3 minutes.
  8. Season with salt and pepper.
  9. Roughly spread the tomatoes, onion and garlic mix, olives and capers over the fish in the baking tray.
  10. And a bit more pepper…
  11. Top with the chopped fresh basil, cover with foil and bake in a moderate (180) oven for 20 mins.
  12. Serve with mashed potato and sweet potato , greens and carrots.
BakedSalmonPuttanesca
Salmon-Puttanesca

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