Baked Salmon with Pesto and Tomatoes (Video)
Baked Salmon with Basil Pesto and Tomatoes is delicious all year, even when you have to use basil pesto from a jar!
PIN Baked Salmon with Pesto and Tomatoes to make it later!
Today I want to remind you about this Baked Salmon with Pesto and Tomatoes. This is one of those no-fail perfect recipes that’s always delicious whenever you make it, but if you still have some fresh garden tomatoes (and maybe even some homemade Basil Pesto with Lemon in the fridge) this is even better. In my small garden I’m still getting a few tomatoes, and I just made some pesto with the last of my basil that was growing in the window, so this looks like a great idea for an early fall dinner.
But even if you don’t have a garden, or your garden tomatoes are long gone, or if you have to use mid-winter tomatoes and pesto from the store, this recipe will always produce spectacular results! It was adapted from Mark Bittman’s Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times, where Bittman used tomatoes and fresh basil to top salmon that was baked in foil.
And no disrespect to Mark Bittman, but I think my variation of using pesto to replace the fresh basil might even have been an improvement! Check out My Favorite Low-Carb and Keto Recipes with Pesto for more tasty ideas for using basil pesto!
Easy Steps to Make Baked Salmon with Pesto and Tomatoes:
(Scroll down for complete printable recipe including nutritional information)
- Let salmon come to room temperature while you preheat the oven or toaster oven and the baking sheet.
- Make a double layer of foil, drizzle a little olive oil on the foil, lay on the salmon pieces, and season the fish. I always season fish with Szeged Fish Rub (affiliate link), but use any seasonings you like if you don’t have that.
- Top each piece of salmon with a thin layer of pesto and some slices of tomato.
- Wrap up the packets, folding over the ends a couple of times.
- Bake at 450 F for 15 minutes. Then let sit a few minutes before carefully opening packet.
- Serve hot, and enjoy!
Make it a Low-Carb Meal:
You can serve Baked Salmon with Pesto and Tomatoes right in the foil if you’d like, for a dinner that’s sure to please anyone who likes salmon. Add something like Cucumbers Caesar or Zucchini Noodle Mock Pasta Salad for a low-carb meal!
More Low-Carb Ideas for Cooking with Pesto:
Easy Baked Pesto Chicken ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Roasted Red Peppers with Pesto and Goat Cheese ~ Aggie’s Kitchen
Twice-Baked Spaghetti Squash with Pesto and Parmesan ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Pesto Zucchini Lasagna Rolls ~ All Day I Dream About Food
Low-Carb Baked Chicken Stuffed with Pesto and Cheese ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Baked Salmon with Pesto and Tomatoes
Baked Salmon with Pesto and Tomatoes is so good, even when you don't have fresh summer tomatoes!
Ingredients
- 2 6 oz. salmon fillets
- fish rub of your choice; see note (this is optional but recommended)
- 2 tsp. olive oil (to grease foil)
- 4 tsp. basil pesto (see notes)
- 2 medium tomatoes, sliced about 1/4 inch thick
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 F. (see notes)
- Place a baking sheet in oven to heat while you prep the salmon.
- Tear two pieces of foil, big enough to wrap salmon with some overlapping.
- Place foil pieces one on top of the other.
- Put about 2 tsp. olive oil in center of top piece of foil and lay salmon on top of oil.
- Season salmon with Szeged Fish Rub or other seasonings of your choice.
- Spread each piece of salmon with about 2 tsp. basil pesto.
- Arrange sliced tomatoes over pesto so they cover the top of the salmon.
- Wrap salmon securely in foil, doubling over the seam and ends several times.
- Place salmon packet on heated baking sheet and cook 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven after 15 minutes and let sit 2-3 minutes.
- Then open carefully and serve immediately, while salmon and tomatoes are hot.
Notes
For years I have used Szeged Fish Rub (affiliate link) but any seasoning blend that tastes good on fish will work in this recipe. You can use pesto from a jar here with good results, although obviously homemade pesto is even better.
I baked this in my Oster toaster oven (affiliate link) which is a good idea when the weather starts heating up.
Recipe adapted from Mark Bittman’s Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times (affiliate link).
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 575Total Fat: 33gSaturated Fat: 7gUnsaturated Fat: 24gCholesterol: 158mgSodium: 211mgCarbohydrates: 6gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 62g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Foil-Baked Salmon with Basil Pesto and Tomatoes is a wonderful meal for low-carb eating plans, including any phase of the South Beach Diet. Tomatoes do have some carbs, but there’s not a lot of tomato in this recipe.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Seafood Recipes or Oven Dinners to find more recipes like this one.Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
105 Comments on “Baked Salmon with Pesto and Tomatoes (Video)”
Jessica, so glad you liked it!
Oh.My.Gosh. YUM! I made this and added a little bit of fetta cheese and whole almonds in with it. Soooo good! Even great with store bought pesto 🙂
Matt, hope you enjoy it, and lucky you to have salmon in the freezer and tomatoes in the garden!
That looks delicious. I just took a piece of Chinook out today and will try this with tomatoes from the garden tonight!
Melissa, glad you liked it, and good to know it worked with canned tomatoes as well.
This was fantastic. I cheated and used a can of petit tomatoes instead of fresh. Super easy and still very delicious! Thanks!!! 😉 Also, if you don't oil the foil then you can lift the fish right off the skin. I don't like fish skin on my plate.
Jess, this is something I make often for guests, highly recommend this recipe.
Oh my goodness – this sounds fabulous! Can't wait to try it.
I love the sound of mizuna pesto in this; I bet that is fantastic! Glad you liked it.
We had this tonight with mizuna pesto (frozen fresh after summer ended forever ago!) and canned tomato. It was really good. I served it with some steamed broc with soy sauce… simple and good.
I would say that "foil-baked" means baked in foil, which is definitely not steaming. I would also call the fish with a crusty surface baked, but that's just my opinion.
Is this method of cooking the fish considered steaming it then?
(haha my idea of baked salmon always involves the fish getting some kind of yummy crusty surface!.. or is that roasting?)
I'll definitely try this soon!
I am excited to try this tonight. Can anyone tell me what they served with this to complete the meal.
I am looking for healthy alternative eating recipes and I think this may be a good start. ( I think )
I'm doing a variation on your salmon in foil packets tonight- I love fish cooked in foil. xox
Anonymous, I'm not that familiar with mizuna, but maybe the pesto had less oil than the regular basil pesto I used?
We made this tonight with a homemade mizuna pesto and pac choy. I felt like it was missing something, maybe butter. It made for a very moist fish though. thanks!
Anonymous, can’t imagine why it would take so long to cook unless your salmon was unusually thick or the oven temperature was wrong.
Has anyone else run into an issue on cooking time? I have it in the oven at 450 for over 25 minutes and it still is raw on the inside. Any suggestions?
Val, I didn’t use salt and pepper, but you certainly could if you wanted to.
I have never cooked fish before, but I do know that salmon is my favorite. Also, pesto is my all time favorite sauce and the two together sound wonderful, and with the tomato on top… it is just the recipe I was looking for. But I noticed that the recipe doesn’t call for any seasoning other that the pesto. Is the pesto enough or is it supposed to be common sense that I should sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the salmon itself?