Salmon topped with pine nuts, rosemary & orange

Moist, buttery salmon luxuriates under a golden crust of pine nuts, seasoned with rosemary and orange zest. Quick, easy and impressive! Treat yourself!

We eat quite a lot of salmon. I don’t really eat meat, but DH and our daughter Kipper are both carnivores, so I make fish as a compromise to keep them happy! Friday night dinner is typically a fishy meal – it is Shabbat, after all.

But salmon on its own is pretty boring. You need to add a little something to liven it up a bit. Give it a bit of pizazz!

Delicious crust

This delicious crusty salmon with pine nuts, rosemary and orange, was concocted for a Friday night dinner. I was able to prepare it earlier in the day then pop it in the oven at the last minute. The topping of pine nuts, rosemary and orange was a doddle to make and the whole thing only took about 10 minutes total (plus cooking) – my kind of low input, impressive output dish! 

Hide the evidence!

The pine nut crust also had the benefit of hiding the horrendous job someone had done cutting up the salmon. I won’t name and shame the supermarket where I bought it, but someone in their fish packing plant is more a fish-mangler than a fish-monger. I had to squash the salmon fillets back into some sort of shape before I could apply the pine nut crust, but once it was on, the disguise was perfect and they looked fab.

As you can see, the nutty crust baked beautifully, becoming golden and gorgeous in the hot oven. It provided a wonderful contrast of textures between the crunchy topping and the soft, perfectly cooked and flaky salmon.

Salmon with pine nuts – ingredients

This delicious salmon dish is easy to make, but its few ingredients really pack in the flavour. To make this delicious salmon with pine nuts, you will need:

• Salmon fillets – of course! As you can see, I made individual fillets, but you could also use this topping on a large piece of salmon and then cut and serve at the table. You will need to extend the cooking time to make sure a bigger piece of fish is cooked through.
• Pine nuts – for the delicious crunchy, nutty topping.
• Orange zest – this adds a wonderful fragrant citrus flavour.
• Dried rosemary – you can also use fresh but reduce the amount so the flavour is not overpowering.
• Melted butter – to stick everything together and ensure moist and delicious fish.

Buttery and moist

I used melted butter to adhere the pine nuts to the salmon, but this also had the advantage of keeping the fish wonderfully moist as it cooked. The cooked salmon fillets were served with a wedge of orange for squeezing, which was fresh-tasting and delicious. The slightly acidic juice was a lovely foil to the buttery fish.

I made four salmon fillets topped with pine nuts, rosemary and orange, although in the end we polished them all off between the three of us. If you’re not such greedy gluttons as we are, I’m confident in saying that this amount will feed four.

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📖 Recipe

Salmon topped with pine nuts, rosemary and orange

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Moist, buttery salmon luxuriates under a golden crust of pine nuts, seasoned with rosemary and orange zest. Quick, easy and impressive!

5 from 6 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine European

Servings 4

Calories 353 kcal

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

• 45 g pine nuts
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 orange zest only
• 4 salmon fillets (approx. 120g/4¼ oz each)
• 20 g melted butter
• Wedges of orange to serve (optional)

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a baking tray with foil.
• 45 g (⅓ cup) pine nuts, 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, 1 orange zest only
  Using a food processor or mini-chopper, whizz the pine nuts, rosemary and orange zest to give coarse crumbs.
• 4 salmon fillets, 20 g (1½ tbsp) melted butter
  Place the salmon fillets on the foil-lined baking tray and brush each fillet liberally with the melted butter – you may not need it all. Press a quarter of the crumbs onto the top of each salmon fillet. (If you have any melted butter remaining, drizzle it over the top of the crumbs.)
• Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15 minutes until the fish is cooked and the pine nut crumbs are golden.
• Wedges of orange to serve
  Serve hot or warm, with orange wedges to squeeze over.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Salmon topped with pine nuts, rosemary and orange

Serving Size

 

1 fillet

Amount per Serving

Calories

353

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

23

g

35

%

Saturated Fat

 

5

g

31

%

Trans Fat

 

1

g

Cholesterol

 

104

mg

35

%

Sodium

 

111

mg

5

%

Potassium

 

902

mg

26

%

Carbohydrates

 

1

g

0

%

Fiber

 

1

g

4

%

Sugar

 

1

g

1

%

Protein

 

35

g

70

%

Vitamin A

 

197

IU

4

%

Vitamin C

 

1

mg

1

%

Calcium

 

24

mg

2

%

Iron

 

2

mg

11

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Keyword fish, nuts, salmon

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Salmon with pine nuts – FAQs