Roasted Salmon with Purple Sprouting and Rosemary-Anchovy Sauce

This dish is the perfect place for those with a fear of anchovies to ease themselves in and begin the process of loving them - because, trust me, you will love them eventually!

I think for most people it's the fear of 'fishy-ness' that puts people off (and indeed here I am serving it with salmon but please bear with me!). However, they don't taste of fish... they taste salty, yes, and rich and they're full of that 'umami' savouriness that you can't quite put your finger (or taste buds) on, but which keeps you coming back for more. They're little flavour bombs and they bring out the best in everything they mix with. As I say, I've chosen salmon here but you could swap that out for chicken or even steak. You could just make the broccoli and toss it in the sauce together with any pasta of your choice. Just, whatever you do, take the plunge and make it!

Roasted Salmon with Purple Sprouting and Rosemary-Anchovy Sauce

Serves 4

For the sauce:

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked and very finely chopped 
10 anchovy fillets in oil, drained and roughly chopped

1 lemon, juice 

extra virgin olive or good quality rapeseed oil 

freshly ground black pepper 

For the salmon:

oil

4 salmon fillets

500g purple sprouting broccoli

sea salt freshly ground black pepper 

Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6, then make your rosemary-anchovy sauce. Pound the rosemary in a pestle and mortar until you have a paste. Add the anchovy fillets and pound again until the paste is dark green. Now add the lemon juice, a couple of lugs of good quality oil and some pepper, and mix together until you have a sauce with a good drizzling consistency. 

Get a large, ovenproof, non-stick frying pan hot. Pat the salmon fillets with a little olive oil, season them with salt and pepper and cook them in the pan, skin-side down, for 2 minutes. Flip them over, then place the pan in the preheated oven for another 3 to 4 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillets and the way they’ve been sliced. 

Just after the salmon goes into the oven, put your broccoli into some boiling, salted water for 3 to 4 minutes until perfectly cooked.

When the broccoli’s perfectly done, drain it, toss it in a little of the anchovy-rosemary sauce and divide it between your plates. Place a salmon fillet alongside and drizzle the whole dish with the rest of the sauce.