I think I may have said this before, but my son loves pesto. I think he would swim in it if he could. HAHA! I have found a variety of ways to include pesto in recipes when I can because he loves it so much. The pesto connoisseur that he is, he says the best-jarred pesto is made by Aldi. I have to admit that the Priano Pesto is quite good. In any event, the latest experiment with pesto is with fish. I used trout for this recipe, but I think this would work well for any freshwater fish.
Ingredients
4 trout filets, or other mild fish
Milk, for soaking the fish
A drizzle of olive oil
Salt and pepper
4 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 jar or more of prepared pesto
1 lemon, cut in slices or 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Pine nuts
Instructions
Soak the trout filets in milk for 30 minutes to neutralize the fishy odor and taste.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lay out 4 large squares of aluminum foil. Drizzle some olive oil over the center of each square of aluminum foil on the counter.
Drain and rinse the trout in a colander. Pat dry with a paper towel. Place one trout filet in the center of each aluminum foil square. Salt and pepper the fish on both sides. Pour a tablespoon of lemon juice over each fish filet.
Spread a generous amount of pesto on each fish filet. Different brands of pesto come in different-sized jars. I used the Priano Pesto from Aldi which is a smaller size jar, so I used two jars to spread on all four of the trout filets. Costco sells an absolutely HUGE jar of pesto, I think you would not even use half of that size jar. I guess my point is to use your judgment about how much pesto you want to spread on your fish. Sprinkle the fish with pine nuts.
Place two lemon slices on top of each trout filet. If you don’t have any fresh lemons, simply pour 1 tablespoon of lemon juice over the fish.
Now it is time to bake. You want to form a packet around your fish with aluminum foil. Fold the long side of the aluminum foil over the ends of the fish as shown below. Then, bring the two short sides of the aluminum foil to meet up over the fish and roll the edges down. Likewise, fold the edges of each side together about 1/2 an inch twice. You want to form a loose packet that is sealed on all sides, so the fish will steam and not leak out.
When my son was in Boy Scouts, they would prepare food for the campfire this way, calling these packets silver turtles.
Place your silver turtle on a cookie sheet. When you bake these, the fish will steam inside the foil. Bake for 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Music to my ears is when the young adult says, “Mom, let’s make this again!”
2 thoughts to “Pesto Trout”