Name: Sheetpan Salmon with Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Ingredients: 24 oz salmon filets; 1 pint cherry tomatoes; 6 whole garlic cloves; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp pepper; 1/4 tsp dried parsley; 2 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil; 1 tsp balsamic vinegar

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Sheetpan Roasted Tomato and Garlic Salmon

I love salmon. I love farm raised salmon. I love wild Alaskan salmon. I love sweet, glazed salmon. I love savory, saucy salmon. I could eat it every day and if you think maybe I’m being dramatic, ask me about the time I ate only 7 foods for a month. One of the things I really love about salmon is how quick and easy it is to cook. Even though I would be happy with salmon every day, realistically we try to eat fish a couple of times a week. This is one of my favorite ways to prepare it, since it means I only dirty one pan and the roasted red garlic sauce makes it restaurant-level. If you are looking to mix up your fish game, give this super easy sheetpan salmon with roasted tomatoes and garlic a try.

Roasting tomatoes and garlic

We have established that I love salmon, but I also love cherry tomatoes. For most of my life, my dad has had a garden and every summer, he grows tomatoes. Also, for most of my life, I’ve been stealing the cherry tomatoes right off the vine. I love to keep them in my house for a snack or to toss in salads. As summer approaches, if you have an abundance of tomatoes, this would be a great way to use them! You could also use this tomato garlic sauce on chicken or pasta! Let’s make it. This sauce comes together via roasting, which means no standing over the stovetop. Yay! Anytime we roast, we are going to need our oven to be HOT, so go aheat and preheat to 425. While our oven is heating, grab some tinfoil to make a mini-pan. Using a piece of tinfoil that is about 18 inches long, fold it in half. Now crimp up the edges to make a lip about 1 inch all the way around. You now have a mini-pan, which you will be grateful for when no one has to scrub burnt-on tomato juices off your sheetpan later on. I’m always looking out for whoever is doing the dishes. Nest your whole cherry tomatoes in their tinfoil home and add your whole cloves of garlic. Please be sure to cut the little wooden butt off your garlic, because no one wants to bite down on that later. Add the olive oil, balsamic and seasonings and bake for about 10 minutes.

Fail-proof salmon

Now that our tomatoes are starting to get juicy, lets add the salmon to our sheet pan. Go ahead and switch your oven to broil while we prep the salmon. Again, trying to make cleanup simple, we are going to line half of the sheetpan with parchment paper (please don’t use wax paper unless you are trying to start a fire) and place our salmon slices on the parchment. Please ignore my extra salmon piece in the picture. I was trying to be efficient. Season the salmon with salt and pepper and place your entire sheetpan in the oven on the middle rack. The rack location is important, so adjust if needed. Bake for 7-9 minutes, depending on your salmon’s thickness. If yours looks similar to mine, I’d go for around 9 minutes if you just pulled it out of the fridge and 8 minutes if it has been sitting out for 20-30 minutes. Broiling salmon is The trick to fail-proof salmon. Cooking at a lower temperature can result in a longer cook time and dryer fish. Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by dry salmon. This method yields similar results to cooking in a frying pan over direct heat. It’s just much easier!

Roasted Tomato Garlic Sauce

See those charred cherry tomatoes?! That friends, is what we call caramelization and it equals major flavor. With roasting, our tomatoes have now lost their tartness and the garlic has also transformed both in taste and texture. Give your tomatoes and garlic a good 5 minutes to cool before moving to the next step. When they come out of the oven, they are around the temperature of molten lava and we are not trying to burn ourselves. Once cooled a little, carefully pour the contents of your tinfoil pan into a bowl and grab a fork. Very slowly, start mashing your tomato garlic mixture. If you have an apron, now would be a great time to use it. If you have a tomato that hasn’t burst during cooking, I would suggest stabbing with a fork to gently release the steam, rather than mashing with the flat side of the fork to prevent a tomato explosion. Mash the tomatoes and garlic until no large pieces remain.

Enjoy!

Now that our tomatoes and garlic are all mashed up, the only thing left to do is plate your salmon and top with a generous serving of the roasted tomato garlic sauce. Yum!

If you are also a salmon and tomato lover and this dish has your name written all over it, here is how to make sheetpan salmon with roasted tomatoes and garlic…