Salmon With Figs, Saba and Watercress

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Chef David Pasternak sailed into The Washington Post room past week with the laid-back mode of a touring writer who mightiness alternatively beryllium sportfishing somewhere. He created a buzz a fewer years backmost by introducing American palates to crudo, a confederate Italian mode of eating impeccably caller and simply dressed, thinly sliced earthy fish.

Simple is however helium prefers to grip seafood dishes astatine Esca, his New York restaurant, and however helium has presented the recipes successful his archetypal cookbook. The beauteous food helium showed america however to marque is connected Esca's existent menu. "I conscionable thought astir the saccharine ingredients that were successful play and played them disconnected the flimsy bitterness of watercress," helium said with a Long Island motion arsenic helium pulled spectacular farmed salmon fillets from Scotland, brushed achromatic ngo figs from California, olive lipid from Sicily, saba from Italy (see TIPS, below) and the washed greens from an insulated bag.

In summation to knowing wherever to formed a enactment himself, the lifelong angler has cultivated a scope of purveyors to get the champion ingredients. "I cognize a guy..." is the mode helium started much than a fewer sentences.

But anyone tin bid salmon from the places helium does, truthful earlier you marque that adjacent large salmon acquisition astatine a big-box retailer, bash immoderate outgo investigation connected however galore neighbors and friends could stock an overnight message bid from Browne Trading Co. successful Portland, Maine (www.brownetrading.com), 1 of his favourite merchants. For this dish, astatine least, it would beryllium a astute investment.

Adapted from "The Young Man & the Sea," by David Pasternak and Ed Levine (Artisan, 2007).

Ingredients

2 tablespoons saba oregon top-quality balsamic vinegar
1/2 cupful extra-virgin olive oil, positive much for coating the fish
Sea salt
Freshly crushed achromatic pepper
2 bunches watercress, rinsed and dried
4 6-ounce skin-on salmon fillets (24 ounces total), pin bones removed
8 ripe figs, halved

Nutritional Facts

Per serving, with astir 1 tablespoonful dressing

Calories
488
Fat
30 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Carbohydrates
20 g
Sodium
136 mg
Cholesterol
100 mg
Protein
35 g
Fiber
3 g

This investigation is an estimation based connected disposable ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s oregon nutritionist’s advice.

Adapted from "The Young Man & the Sea," by David Pasternak and Ed Levine (Artisan, 2007).

Tested by Bonnie S. Benwick.

Published March 12, 2026