Salmon Florentine

Salmon is one of my favorite fish to prepare at home. It is quick cooking with great taste and texture. It is hard too screw up, which is also a huge bonus! Anyway, I found this recipe in my Ellie Krieger So Easy cookbook, and it sounded like something that would be right up our alley. I went to foodnetwork.com so I could re-copy the recipe without typing everything out, and found some surprising reviews and suggestions on how to make this dish better. I think I will incorporate some of the suggestions into the recipe and see how my version turns out. I will post my changes in my below 'notes' section. I think I will serve this fish dinner with some roasted potatoes and asparagus. I just roast them both together on the same baking sheet (for easy clean up) which makes it a yummy, no-hassle side dish.

Salmon Florentine
From: the So Easy cookbook, by Ellie Krieger

Ingredients:
*2 (10 ounce) packages frozen spinach, thawed (I am using fresh spinach)*
*1 tablespoon olive oil (I am using a little more to coat the fish; maybe another tablespoon or so)*
1/4 cup minced shallots
2 teaspoons minced garlic
5 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
*1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I increased the quantity of the red pepper flakes)*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, rinsed and patted dry
*lemon juice to taste (added to the filling)*
*garlic powder (added to the filling)*
*dash of celery salt (added to the filling)*

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Using your hands, squeeze spinach of all excess liquid (skip this step if using fresh spinach).

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and cook for 3 minutes until they begin to soften. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, red pepper flakes, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool approximately 10 minutes. Add ricotta, lemon juice, garlic powder, celery salt and stir to combine. Season with additional salt and pepper, to taste.

Coat the top of the salmon fillets with a little drizzle of olive oil and additional salt and pepper (just a small amount). Using your hands, pack approximately 1/2 cup spinach mixture on top of each salmon fillet, forming mixture to the shape of the fillet. Place fillets on a rimmed baking sheet or glass baking dish and bake for 15 minutes, until salmon is cooked through.

Per Serving:
Calories 375, Fat 18 g; (Sat Fat 4 g, Mono Fat 7 g, Poly Fat 5 g) ; Protein 44 g; Carb 12 g; Fiber 5 g; Cholesterol 103 mg; Sodium 585 mg

Excellent source of: Protein, Vitamin A, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Folate, Pantothenic Acid, Calcium Copper, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Selenium, Vitamin C, Good source of: Iron, Zinc, Fiber

Jen's Notes:
My changes are indicated in the ingredients list, noted with an asterisk (*). Also, the Nutritional Info will be different on my version, due to the increase of some ingredients.

Also, I like my salmon cooked a little more, so I think I will bump up the cooking time. I am not sure how long I am going to let it go, so I will just have to play it by ear. I will post my final cook time in my 'results' post later.



The Result:
Yuuuummmmmm....good! This turned out really good. We all liked it a lot, and it will be a recipe that I prepare again. If I wouldn't have jazzed up the filling with spices and lemon juice, I think it would have been on the bland side. With that said, the end result--with the lemon juice and spices--was great. I think this is one of the better salmon recipes that I have prepared at home. I ended up cooking my fish at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. I think I probably have gotten away with the higher temperature and only cooked the fish for 15 minutes. I will try it next time and see if there is a big difference overall. Once again, I am happy to report a yummy Ellie Krieger recipe.