Pesto Salmon and Spaghetti Squash

This dinner is so delicious! It does take a little time since you have several components that you are working with. However, there are a few options to shorten the time i.e. making the pesto ahead of time as well as the spaghetti squash. If you are trying to do it all in one night you might want to start the squash an hour and a half before dinner is to be served. 

Spaghetti Squash

You will want to start this about an hour and a half before you want dinner on the table. See my “How to Cook a Spaghetti Squash”.

Pesto Sauce

You will need:

1/2 cup almonds

3/4 of a tube of basil (fresh basil is very expensive here so I buy in the refrigerated section in produce a tube of basil, however if you wanted to use fresh I would say 4oz before de-stemmed would do the trick)

1/8 cup olive oil

1 garlic bulb

Salt and Pepper to taste

(You could always make this ahead of time and store it in a container in the fridge. I would say you could keep it in a sealed container in the fridge for about 1-2 weeks.)

First preheat your oven to 350. Next cover a baking sheet in foil and dump your almonds on it. Peel and separate your garlic bulb. Then place it in a small glass ramekin drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover the glass dish with foil and place on baking sheet with almonds. Now its ready to go in the oven. Bake the almonds for about 5 minutes or until dark brown. Cook the garlic until it becomes soft about 15-20 minutes (I check mine for softness by piercing it with a fork). Once the garlic is done, combine everything in a food processor and blend until as smooth as you want it. If you want it creamier you can add more olive oil.

Now for the rest of the dish

You will need:

2 smaller salmon pieces (or however many you want, I think the pesto recipe would probably work for about 4 small pieces)

Homemade Pesto Sauce

2 small tomatoes

Your oven should already be preheated to 350. Place salmon on greased baking sheet cook for about 15-20 minutes. You want to pull it out about 5 minutes before its done. You are going to spread pesto sauce on top of the salmon (if you pesto has been refrigerated you may need to heat it up a little, in order to spread it). Next slice your tomato and top your salmon and pesto with tomato. Place your fish back in the oven and continue cooking until done. Stir some of the homemade pesto into your cooked spaghetti squash noodles and serve with the salmon.