Seared Halibut with Fresh Tomato Basil Sauce

If you follow me on Facebook, you’ve probably seen that I’m on vacation with my family at our cabin in Northern Minnesota this week.  It’s one of our favorite places to spend time!  We have fun just relaxing, enjoying the lake and, of course, eating lots of good food!  We have some favorite restaurants we like to go to, but we also love to cook while we’re up here.

On Monday night, it was just Steve, Alex and me for dinner.  The rest of the family wasn’t coming up until Tuesday.  Since only Steve, Alex and I are fish eaters, I thought fish for dinner would be perfect.  I had found some halibut for a really good price at Sam’s club, so I had packed that to bring up here figuring I could make something delicious with that.

What I came up with is this seared halibut with fresh tomato basil sauce.  It was really easy to prepare and the flavor was incredible!  It takes a little while for the sauce to simmer, since you’re using fresh tomatoes, but the actual hands-on time is minimal.  If you can’t find halibut at a good price, any mild white fish would work well in this dish.  We served it over pasta which was great for soaking up the yummy sauce!

Now it’s time for me to head outside and start enjoying another beautiful day of vacation!!

Seared Halibut with Fresh Tomato Basil Sauce

• 4 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 3 large roma tomatoes or 4 medium size, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 3 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• 4 (6oz) pieces halibut
• hot cooked spaghetti (optional)

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a skilled over medium heat.

Add garlic, saute for about 1 minute.

Add tomatoes, saute for about about 3-5 minutes, until tomatoes start to break down.

Stir in wine.  Add salt and pepper and increase heat.  Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, until tomatoes have broken down enough to form a sauce.  Stir occasionally.

Stir in basil.

Once sauce is ready, heat remaining olive oil in a separate large non-stick skillet over medium high heat.  You want the pan to get very hot.

Season both sides of the fish with a little salt and pepper.

Add fish to hot oil.  Sear on both sides for about 2 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium, add sauce to fish.

Simmer fish in the sauce for about 5 minutes until fish is cooked through.

Serve over hot cooked spaghetti, if desired.

ENJOY!

Shared at these great blogs:

The Country Cook

Gooseberry Patch

Carrie’s Experimental Kitchen