Erica De Mane

Recipe: Trout with Prosciutto, Sage, and Lemon

I have to admit to myself that the road to weight control and good health is pretty obvious. For starters, cut down on refined carbs and saturated fats. That leaves vegetables and fish. I love seafood of all kinds, but if I fail to put a little creativity into the preparation, a fish fillet can be pretty boring. A squeeze of lemon? Forget it. You’ve got to mix it up. And that’s the culinary challenge.

I often analyze classic Italian meat dishes, steal their flavorings, and apply them to fish. It doesn’t always work, but when it does it can be a taste revelation. Here I’ve pulled out the ingredients for saltimbocca, the Roman veal dish. Take away the veal, and you’re basically left with prosciutto and sage. Saltimbocca is a very simple dish, but it has big flavor. The trick is to find the right fish.

First I tried salmon for the saltimbocca treatment. The result was cloying. I tried tilefish, but the prosciutto and sage overwhelmed the insipid meat. Then I used trout. Now it came out just right, rich the way rich is supposed to be, luscious and suave. It was the success I had hoped for, confirming my conviction that a little pork will improve just about anything. Sage is often a problem herb, musty and bitter, but just a few fresh leaves united the prosciutto with the trout in what I found to be a profound way.

The recipe is easily doubled or tripled.

Trout with Prosciutto, Sage, and Lemon

(Serves 2)

2 good-size trout fillets
1 shallot, very thinly sliced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
The juice from ½ a lemon
A few big scrapings of nutmeg
Black pepper
Salt
6 beautiful fresh sage leaves
2 very thin slices prosciutto di Parma
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix the lemon juice with a tablespoon of olive oil. Season it with the nutmeg, black pepper, and salt (go light on the salt, since the prosciutto is salty). Lay the trout fillets, skin side down, in a small baking dish. Pour the lemon oil over them. Scatter the shallot on top. Place 3 sage leaves on each fillet, and then cover the fillets with the prosciutto. Dot the top with butter, and bake until the prosciutto is lightly crisped and the trout is just tender (mine took about 6 minutes, but judge the time by the thickness of your fish). Serve right away.