Salmon Italian Style

This is a very simple salmon dish, ideal for a summer's lunch with friends. Fresh ingredients are a must and it's very important that the salmon is not overcooked.

You can prepare the sauce overnight, if you wish, and reheat it the next day. In fact, that's very good practice because it will give the flavours plenty of time to develop and ensure that you can enjoy the meal as much as everyone else will.

Here's what you need:

• 4 salmon steaks
• juice of 1 lemon
• plain, all-purpose flour, seasoned with black pepper
• 5tbs olive oil
• 4 finely chopped french shallots (or one onion)
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed with a little salt
• 125mls (4fl oz) soft white wine
• 25g butter (1 oz)
• 4 Roma tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and chopped
• 2-3 tbs chopped oregano
• 2 tbs sliced black olives
• freshly ground salt and black pepper

Start with the sauce. Heat two tablespoons of the olive oil in a medium sized skillet, season it with salt, pepper and garlic, then add the shallots. Saute these over a medium heat until transparent and stir in the tomatoes. Cook through and reduce so that you have something approaching a tomato sauce.

Add the white wine and stir it in, reducing by half. This drives off the alcohol. Now add the butter, olives and oregano. Stir through and set aside.

In a clean pan, heat the remaining olive oil. Brush the salmon steaks with lemon juice and dip them in the flour, shaking off any excess. Pan fry the steaks in the olive oil for two minutes each side and place on warmed plates. Reheat the sauce and spoon this over the fish, which will continue to cook even as you bring it to the table.

I like to serve this dish with some pasta flavoured with a little pesto and olive oil, plus a very crisp green salad dressed with a simple vinaigrette.

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