• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

½ cup plus 4 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

2 large yellow onions

4 medium tomatoes

16 cloves garlic, smashed

10 sprigs each of fresh thyme and oregano, plus ½ tbsp. each of fresh thyme and fresh oregano leaves, roughly chopped Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

4 10-oz. bone-in salmon steaks

4 thin slices of lemon

2 tbsp. fresh tarragon leaves

2 tbsp. Pernod

Serves 4

1. Heat oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and grease it with ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil.

2. Cut onions into ¼ -inch-thick rings; cut tomatoes into ½ -inch slices. Spread out the onions and tomatoes on the baking sheet to form a bed for the salmon steaks. Tuck garlic, thyme, and oregano between vegetables and drizzle with ¼ cup olive oil. Season the vegetables with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Roast the vegetables until soft and lightly browned, about 25 minutes.

3. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Set an oven rack 3 inches from the broiler element; heat oven to broil. Arrange salmon steaks on top of the roasted vegetables and drizzle with 2 tbsp. oil, and season with freshly ground black pepper to taste. Place 1 slice of lemon on each salmon steak and sprinkle ½ tbsp. chopped thyme and ½ tbsp. chopped oregano over the fish. Broil salmon until lightly browned and just cooked through, about 5 minutes.

4. To serve, transfer salmon and vegetables to a platter. Sprinkle with tarragon, Pernod, and remaining oil.

King of Fish

Each summer, they rush upriver with remarkable urgency—schools of indomitable salmon, leaping skyward in glistening arcs of silver as they return from the ocean depths to their freshwater birthplaces to spawn. For centuries, North American fisher-men and cooks have eagerly awaited this annual spring pilgrimage; it signals a return to a season of abundance and vitality in the kitchen. Different waterways along North America’s West Coast attract different species of Pacific salmon (see “Know Your Salmon”): Alaska’s Yukon River, for example, is known for king salmon, while Washington’s Puget Sound yields mostly pink and sockeye salmon. On the Atlantic, however, wild salmon populations are less than half of what they were only 20 years ago; just a few countries in the North Atlantic, including Ireland and Iceland, still support a very small salmon fishery.

Know Your Salmon

Different varieties of salmon vary substantially in taste and texture, but they all share one cardinal trait: a high fat content, which gives their flesh a rich flavor and lush texture. All wild salmon taste their best when caught just before their journey home to freshwater spawning grounds, since they prepare for the trip by fattening up on ocean crustaceans. Featured here are the six varieties available in the United States. Also known as chinook salmon, the mighty king1 can weigh well over a hundred pounds; its habitat ranges from California to Alaska. The meaty fish has a pure flavor and ample fat and cooks beautifully over a charcoal fire. The coho salmon2, also called silver salmon, constitutes just 10 percent of the commercial salmon fishery in the United States. Making its home in the waters from Oregon to Alaska and available in markets from late summer through fall, the fish has a firm texture and a rich, gamy flavor suited to simple preparations like poaching. Pink salmon3, also called humpback salmon, is the smallest variety available in this country, averaging only five pounds; the most abundant of our salmons, it’s often canned. Lower in fat, its delicate, sweet flesh has a subtle flavor best brought out by pan-frying or whole-roasting. Sometimes known as leaper salmon, the Atlantic salmon4 once flour-ished in North Atlantic waters, but overfishing, pollution, and a host of other factors have decimated wild stocks. Demand for this fatty, full-flavored salmon, probably the most versatile variety when it comes to cooking, is met mostly by fish farms, which now produce more than half of all the salmon sold in this country.