• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
All Our Way
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Life
  • Wild Game
  • Contact
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
menu icon
go to homepage
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Life
  • Wild Game
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Life
  • Wild Game
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
×
Home » Recipes » Seafood/Fish

Grilled Italian Pesto Salmon 30 Minutes Start to Finish

Published: Jun 25, 2022 by Marisa Franca

Jump to Recipe
Two salmon fillets topped with pesto sauce on a white plate with lemon slices surrounding the fish. Red striped tea towel is underneath plate.

Grilled Italian Pesto Salmon or baked is such a quick and easy recipe. The recipe takes a few ingredients, and it's on the table in 30 minutes. The salmon is a beautiful pink color with flaky meat and a delicious buttery taste. All you need are five ingredients and half an hour to impress your family or guests with your pesto salmon. Use store-bought or homemade pesto.

Grilled Italian Pesto Salmon is a quick and easy dish complete in 30 minutes @allourway.com
Jump to:
  • Wild caught or farm-raised salmon
  • Making the decision
  • Grilling the Italian pesto salmon
  • More tasty fish recipes
  • Grilled Italian Pest Salmon 30 Minutes Start To Finish
  • 📖 Recipe
  • 💬 Comments

Wild caught or farm-raised salmon

You plan on making Grilled Italian Pesto Salmon, and now you're at the grocery store trying to figure out what kind of fish to buy.

The wild caught fish is almost double the price of the farm-raised variety. It's quite a dilemma, especially since you're trying to stay within your food.

You're not the only one who's confused. Some experts say there really isn't much difference between the two, while other authorities say that the wild caught is superior.

Overall, I found, that there are more proponents for wild caught than farm raised.

Making the decision

Wild salmon obtain their pink hue from their natural environment by feasting on a diet of krill, which eats red algae.

Farm-raised salmon gets its color from food additives.

Farm raised salmon explained on our post Grilled Italian Pesto Salmon 30 minutes start to finish @allourway.com

One of the most common dyes used in fish feed is called canthaxanthin. This compound may cause eye defects and retinal damage.

Other issues that cause concern are the toxins and contaminants. They are higher in farm salmon than in wild salmon.

The antibiotics used in the farm-raised fish stay there and enter your system. There is also the environmental impact the industrial farms have on the surrounding waterways.

All in all, we prefer wild caught for our pesto salmon, but the decision is yours, of course.

Grilled Italian Pesto Salmon is on the table in 30 minutes. Easy and delicious @allourway.com

Putting it all together

Once you purchase the salmon fillet with skin on the one side, the only other ingredients you'll need is prepared pesto, green onions, fresh lemon juice, and garlic cloves.

I'll be willing to bet that a lot of you have those ingredients in your kitchen right now.

One important step before grilling the salmon is to feel the flesh for bones. The bones are easy to pull out with heavy duty tweezers or pliers. We have a special pair of needle nose pliers we keep in the kitchen just for this purpose.

Grilled Pesto Italian Salmon is on the table in 30 minutes. It's quick and delicious @allourway.com

Grilling the Italian pesto salmon

You make the pesto sauce by combining in a small bowl

  •  prepared pesto,
  • onions,
  • lemon juice,
  • garlic

Put the salmon on the medium heated grill (350F), skin side down. Grill for about 5 minutes, then spoon a little of the pesto mixture over the fish.

Grill with the lid down about 15 minutes longer or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Baste the salmon occasionally with the remaining pesto sauce.

In 30 minutes you have a delicious and nutritious protein that is low in calories, high in vitamins, and a family that thinks you're a genius for creating such a wonderful dish.

Grilled Italian Pesto Salmon is a quick and delicious dish that is on the table in 30 minutes @allourway.com

This is a recipe that even non-fish lovers will enjoy. I learned to use pesto with fish, such as our grilled mahi mahi,  from my mamma. It is such an easy way to add flavor.

Another grilled seafood recipe you have to try is our Marinated Swordfish on the Grill recipe. Cooking swordfish steaks on the grill is very easy and so tasty that this will be the only way you want to cook them.

We hope you'll sign up for our weekly newsletter so we can share what we're doing in and out of our kitchen.

If you enjoy seafood recipes check these recipes out.

Louisiana Shrimp Gumbo

The Best Way to Cook Florida Pompano

Grilled Lime Marinated Mahi Mahi

Grilled Lime Herb Fish With Truffle Oil

Lime Grilled Herb Halibut 

We have so many delicious seafood recipes, we hope you take a look and give them a try.

More tasty fish recipes

Thirteen Seafood Recipes

Tutti a tavola è pronto!

Un caro saluto e alla prossima.

The following are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliate sites. 

Thanks so much for being a part of All Our Way!

We keep needle nose plier just like these in our kitchen drawer. I use them to remove small bones in fish or chicken. They are super handy for anything for everything food related. They are inexpensive and certainly saves lots of time.

What's new? check out my All Our Way Store on Amazon. We'll be adding more items we love and use or wish we had to make cooking fun and easy. 

Grilled Italian Pesto Salmon a quick and delicious dish ready in 30 minutes @allourway.com

Grilled Italian Pest Salmon 30 Minutes Start To Finish

Adding a bit of pesto sauce to salmon or any grilled fish really dresses up the dish. I learned this from my mamma who loved to grill her fish and make this pesto sauce. It can't get any easier and the end result is better than restaurant quality dish. Try it and see if you don't agree.

And if you want to oven bake your salmon, you don't need a culinary degree to make this foolproof Easy Lemon Garlic Oven-Baked Salmon With Orzo Pasta recipe.

We think grilled seafood really brings out the flavor of seafood, another fish that loves getting the grill treatment is The Grilled Pompano with Lime Marinade recipe. Once you try it you'll want to make grilled fish a regular on your menu rotation.

If you like this recipe please consider giving it a 5-star rating. This helps others to decide whether to try the recipe.

📖 Recipe

Italian Pesto Salmon recipe on a white plate with lemon slices.

Grilled Italian Pesto Salmon 30 Minutes Start to Finish

This is quick pesto salmon recipe yields a buttery, flaky, beautifully pink salmon that will become a family favorite. Five ingredients are all that you need for this outstanding Italian salmon dish that is impressive enough for company.
4.98 from 37 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: main dish, seafood
Cuisine: American, Italian
Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes minutes
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 125kcal
Author: Marisa Franca @ All Our Way
As An Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Ingredients

  • 1 salmon fillet 1 ½ pounds
  • ½ cup prepared pesto we used our homemade pesto* see note
  • 2 green onion finely chopped
  • ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
  • 2 garlic cloves minced
  • lemon wedges to serve with salmon
Get Recipe Ingredients

Instructions

  • In a small bowl, whisk the pesto, onions, lemon juice, and garlic. Add a few grinds of pepper and a pinch of salt.
  • Lightly coat the grill rack with cooking oil or spray. Heat grill to medium high heat (350 F.).
  • Once the grill reaches the proper temperature, place salmon skin side down on the grill rack.
  • Grill covered over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
  • Spoon some of the pesto sauce over the salmon taking care it doesn't flame up.
  • Grill 15 minutes longer or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Baste occasionally with the remaining pesto sauce.
  • Serve with lemon wedges.

Notes

Whatever salmon you have left over, use the next day on a salad or mix it with pasta for a delicious pasta dish.
ROASTING IN OVEN: Preheat the oven 450 F. and place the salmon skin side down on a non-stick baking sheet or non-stick pan (make sure handle is oven-proof). Prepare the salmon as we did for grilling. Bake 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the salmon. Finish as we did the original recipe. If you have any other questions please let us know.
*Here is the link to our homemade pesto recipe without pine nuts. 

Nutrition

Serving: 4ounces | Calories: 125kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 206mg | Potassium: 160mg | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 470IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 41mg | Iron: 0.4mg

Sign up for the emails and never miss another recipe!!

    Powered By ConvertKit
    We'll never share your email or send you spam. Promise

    Note: Recipes and content from ©2017 All Our Way are copyright protected. Please do not use content or recipe without prior written permission. If you want to share the information, please link to this post. Grazie.

    SaveSave

    SaveSave

    More Seafood/Fish

    • Overhead view of the creamy shrimp zucchini stuffed boats in a casserole dish.
      Creamy Shrimp Zucchini Boats
    • Southern-style shrimp pasta salad with orecchiette pasta, snow peas, and lemon vinaigrette dressing.
      Zesty Southern Shrimp Pasta Salad
    • Weeknight shrimp dinner made in one skillet with lemon and tarragon over orzo pasta.
      Lemon-Tarragon Shrimp Scampi With Orzo
    • A white bowl filled with quick-cooking cheesy grits and topped with creamy New Orleans-style shrimp.
      New Orleans Shrimp and Grits
    3.1K shares

    Primary Sidebar

    I’m Marisa Franca, a home chef, food writer, and photographer who believes that you can make gourmet quality food at home with simple seasonal ingredients. I’m passionate about family, food, friends, everything Italian, and happy endings.

    More about me →

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

    🍿Snack Favorites

    • Macaroni and cheese stuffed into a large pepperoni slice and baked.
      Pizza Bites Appetizer and Snack
    • A glass bowl filled with creamy chickpeas made into a hummus dip.
      Homemade Hummus Recipe
    • Casserole dish with baked ground beef taco dip.
      Baked Taco Dip
    • A sausage meatball pyramid in a white plate with the appetizers pierced with toothpicks.
      Cheesy Sausage Balls

    🇮🇹 Italian Comfort Food

    • Bolognese Sauce Antica gives you a true taste of Italy. A special sauce for a special meal.
      Bolognese Sauce Antica A True Taste of Italy
    • Creamy Parmesan Baked gnocchi in a rich cheesy sauce baked in a black cast iron skillet.
      Baked Gnocchi in Parmesan Sauce
    • A cast iron skillet holding the Beefy Ravioli Bake with torn basil leaves sprinkled on top.
      Beefy Baked Ravioli
    • A white plate filled with egg sauce coated pasta with bits of pork on top and some parley leaves.
      Classic Roman Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

    🌬️ Cozy Winter Soups

    • Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup recipe served in a white bowl and garnished with onions, bacon, and almonds.
      Savory Chicken Wild Rice Soup With Mushrooms
    • Bowl of Slow Cooker Taco Soup Topped With sour cream and corn chips.
      Easy Slow Cooker Taco Soup
    • Brown bowl filled with chunks of meat and barley grains in a tomato broth with a spoon in the bowl.
      Old-Fashioned Hearty Beef Barley Soup - The Way Mamma Used To Make
    • Black Bean soup garnished with sliced avocado, diced red onions, and cilantro leaves.
      Southwestern Black Bean Soup

    🤤 Delicious Yet Light

    • A salad bowl filled with Strawberry Lettuce combination and grilled chicken dressed with poppyseed dressing.
      Strawberry Poppyseed Salad
    • A glass bowl filled with orzo pasta combined with cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, chickpeas, feta, seasonings, and dressed with a Greek vinaigrette.
      Ultimate Greek Orzo Salad
    • Fresh green cabbage salad made with a homemade green goddess dressing.
      Green Goddess Salad And Dressing
    • Overhead view of large white bowl filled with arugula salad tossed with pears, gorgonzola cheese, cranberries, and walnuts.
      Arugula Salad

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • Privacy Policy
    • About
    • Accessibility

    Newsletter

    • Subscribe for emails and updates

    Contact

    • Contact

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2025 All Our Way

    Rate This Recipe

    Your vote:




    A rating is required
    A name is required
    An email is required