Sunday supper: Sweet Chile-Glazed Salmon with Strawberry Sauce Vierge

Serves 4.

From “Mostly French: Recipes From a Kitchen in Provence,” by Makenna Held, who operates the Courageous Cooking School in Julia Child’s former summer home in Provence. “At first, this audacious combination of strawberries and salmon was hotly contested by everyone at the Courageous Cooking School,” she writes. “But after enlisting friends and students to test many variations, we hit on this beautifully glazed recipe with a distinct bite of chiles. You might want to make extra glaze to whisk with some olive oil and a splash of vinegar to make into a fruity salad dressing.” (Simon Element, 2025)

For the salmon:

For the garnish:

Directions

To prepare the salmon and glaze: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place the salmon on a half-sheet pan and season both sides with salt. Allow it to come to room temperature while you prepare the glaze.

Combine the strawberries and chile flakes in a blender. Grate in lime zest from the entire lime, cut the lime in half, and add about 1 tablespoon of the juice. Add the shallot, coriander and a hearty pinch of salt, and process until smooth. Set aside.

Move the salmon to one side of the half-sheet pan. Pour about half of the sauce, in a strip the same length as the salmon, onto the center of the pan. Place the salmon on top. Smother the remaining glaze over the top of the salmon. Bake for 5 minutes to set the glaze.

Reduce the temperature to 425 degrees. Continue baking until the salmon is rare (the flesh looks rosy when prodded in the center with the tip of a sharp knife), about 10 minutes more. For medium-rare (the flesh is pink with a rosy center), bake for 15 minutes. For fully cooked salmon (the flesh is pink and opaque), allow 20 minutes.

To prepare the garnish: In a small bowl, mix the tomatoes, strawberries and herbs and season with salt and pepper.

Cut the salmon into portions and serve on plates, or eat it right off the sheet pan with the garnish on the side.