Salmon cooks quickly and pairs well with a variety of flavors and ingredients. My family loves variety. Although we eat salmon at least once a week, we make each iteration unique. This is done by using different marinades, seasoning blends, or sauces. This salmon piccata—a new family favorite—combines salmon fillets with a zesty, lemon-flavored piccata sauce.

When buying salmon, avoid fillets that smell strongly of fish, are leaking liquid, have brown spots or appear dried out. Don’t be afraid of frozen fish, especially because wild-caught salmon is often flash-frozen to preserve its fresh flavor.

What is piccata?

Piccata is a white wine sauce made with bright lemon juice, briny capers and creamy butter. It’s an essential element of chicken piccata. This variation uses salmon fillets in place of chicken breasts.

Salmon Piccata Ingredients

• Salmon: You can use skin-on or skinless salmon for this recipe; skin-on salmon will be the most flavorful type of salmon for this recipe. I prefer wild-caught Alaskan salmon—especially coho and sockeye varieties—but farmed Atlantic salmon is a fine substitute. You can use frozen fillets to make this dish, thawing them overnight in the refrigerator first. To make this four-serving salmon recipe, you will need four fillets that weigh 4 to 6 ounces each.
• Olive oil: Olive oil is used to cook the salmon. You can use regular olive oil here; save your extra virgin olive oil for drizzling or dipping.
• Salt and pepper: The salmon is seasoned simply with salt and pepper.
• Piccata sauce: The piccata sauce is a combination of bright, briny and savory ingredients including capers, low-sodium chicken broth, fresh lemon juice, white wine, garlic and butter. When it comes to choosing a wine, opt for a dry white varietal like pinot grigio.

Taste of Home