May 4th, 2012
More fish: Salmon with Cilantro & Pepita Pesto
Some food, no matter how delicious it is, just refuses to be pretty. It’s like those girls who refuse to wear makeup because they want you to be attracted to their brains instead of their bodies and at first you think they’re one of those stuck-up feminists but then they turn out to be pretty cool when you get to know them.
This cilantro-pepita pesto is like that. No matter how I styled it or photographed it, I just couldn’t get it to look…appetizing. At first it looks kind of like something that would come out of a baby, but once you look past its icky green gloopiness and take a bite, you’ll find that it has a bright freshness from the cilantro, and a slight toasty richness from the pepitas.
Hiding underneath that green glop is a perfectly tender, juicy, seared salmon fillet. I do love me some salmon pretty much any way I can get it, so I easily overlooked the crazy coloring of the cilantro pesto and dug in. It really works well with the nuttiness of forbidden (black) rice, but I bet it would go well with my other fish side dish-standby: cous cous. Or maybe some bruschetta on the side? At any rate, if you can get ahold of some pepitas (also known as hulled or shelled pumpkin seeds), I highly recommend you give this a try.
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