Baked Fish with Capers and Olives (p. 366) and Castelvetro's Grilled Asparagus (p. 294)

This is a quick and easy baked fish recipe. I used salmon, but you could certainly choose a different (and perhaps cheaper) fish as well. The fish goes into a baking dish, and is topped with a sort of tomato sauce that includes tomatoes (I used canned), a little sugar, capers, olives, and lemon juice. Over the top of that, you put a layer of breadcrumbs, and then bake the dish for about 40 minutes.

As you can see, the bread crumbs didn't really fully integrate with the salmon and the sauce -- next time I would probably do a little more of the tomato sauce and a little less of the breadcrumbs. Still, it had a really nice flavor and we both enjoyed it.

Also, it turned out that the ridiculous amount I spent on olives for the tapenade actually included the olives for this recipe -- I had thought they'd be separate on my receipt, but they bundled them all together.

I also made an asparagus dish as a side. The asparagus are mixed with olive oil and then rolled in a salt and pepper mix. They go under the broiler for about 10 minutes, and are crisp and a little browned when they come out. Then they're quickly mixed with a few teaspoons of orange juice which adds a little bit of a sweet citrusy flavor to the asparagus. It's very mellow, but is a nice combination of sweet and salt.

A loaf of plain stecca rounded out the meal. I'd definitely do a few changes if I were to make the salmon again, but all in all, another tasty Mediterranean meal!

We also have lots of leftovers, so this will probably feed us through the weekend, and maybe even through lunch on Monday!

salmon - $19.08

canned tomatoes -- $1.19
lemon -- $.89

Total Cost of Baked Fish with Capers and Olives: $21.16

asparagus -- $6.65

Total Cost of Castelvetro's Grilled Asparagus: $ 6.65