Pesto Salmon

The other night, I went out to Buca di Beppo with the girls, and one of the dishes we ordered was Pesto Salmon. It really didn't sound all that exciting to me compared to all the sinful pasta delights, but once I had a bite, I was overcome by the succulence of it. I couldn't get enough!!! I knew I had to try to recreate it, since I LOVE salmon, and we eat it a lot at my house. It turned out SO good. In fact, I didn't even have time to take a picture before we gobbled it all up. ;) I will definitely be making it again though!!!

I didn't really use a recipe, so I'll do my best to estimate what I used.

For the pesto sauce, I combined the following ingredients in my food processor:
1-2 C of fresh basil leaves
1/2 C Italian parsley
2 T pine nuts
3 cloves garlic
1/4 C parmesan cheese
enough oil to make a smooth sauce, 1/2 -3/4 C
salt and pepper to taste

Then I mixed up a cream sauce:
2T butter cooked with
2T flour
enough milk whisked in to make a smooth, creamy sauce (about 3/4 C)
about 1/2 C parmesan cheese melted into sauce

Then I added enough pesto to the cream sauce to get a desirable mix. The cream sauce kept the pesto from being too spicy, and added an extra cheesiness to the sauce. (I froze the rest of the pesto for a future use.) Mix about 1/4-1/2 C pine nuts and 1/4-1/2 C julienned sun-dried tomatoes into the pesto sauce.

Next, I cooked two salmon fillets sprinkled with salt and pepper in just a teeny bit of olive oil, just until flaky. I served the salmon with the sauce poured over the top.

This is excellent served with steamed broccoli w/garlic and red pepper flakes! :)

YUM!