January 10, 2016

Grilled Marinated Swordfish Italian Style – All Our Way

Name: Grilled Marinated Swordfish Italian Style
Prep time: 180 min
Cook time: 10 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 2 swordfish steaks - sliced no more that 1-inch thick; 4 Tablespoons olive oil; 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar; 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice; 1 garlic clove (minced); 1 teaspoon fresh thyme (chopped); 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary (chopped); 1 teaspoon fresh sage (chopped fine); 1/2 teaspoon salt or qb (quanto basta to taste); 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (qb (quanta basta) to taste); Fresh Italian parsley and lemon juice to finish.

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We enjoy fish several times a week, and dining on Grilled Marinated Swordfish Italian Style is like eating at an expensive restaurant. This Marinating then grilling is a wonderful way to prepare swordfish. The steaks turn out so flavorful and moist.

Make the marinade

The marinade is quite easy to whip up. It just takes a little bit of olive oil, some fresh lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, fresh aromatic herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper. These are staples we have on hand. Then to finish it off the grilled marinated swordfish we either squirt a tad of fresh lemon juice over the fish or add a small dollop of fresh pesto on the bottom of the plate then lay the fish on top.

The fresh pesto was my mamma’s way of finishing off her pesce alla griglia {grilled fish}.

Whenever mamma cooked, it was a ritual. Grilling fish entailed firing up the hibachi and making a pesto with prezzemolo, aglio, e olio d’oliva {Italian parsley, garlic, and olive oil}. Mamma had this old cutting board my papà made for her, and she used it so much the cutting board split down the center.

Well, being the frugal Italians that they are, papà just took two small pieces of wood and screwed them to one side of the cutting board.

Ecco just like new!!

Make the pesto

That small board got lots of use, believe me. In this instance, mamma took several cloves of peeled garlic and started mincing. She sprinkled some salt over the garlic — this adds friction so that she can mince the garlic until it’s a paste. Then she does the same to the parsley. She combined the two and then scraped the ingredients from the cutting board with her knife and slid the paste into a small bowl.

She whisked olive oil into the paste and finally to top it all off, she added a squirt of fresh lemon juice. Once she finished the pesto, it was time to grill the fish.

Grill the fish

The hibachi served my parents well. The grill didn’t use a lot of charcoal, and it was just right for our small family. To start the grill mamma crumpled up newspaper on the bottom and added a handful of coals on top of the paper. She lit the paper and then let the old green fan I had in my bedroom fan the flames.

Those were the days when there was no central air or for that matter window units. We just relied on open windows and fans. When I got married, that old green fan got relegated to hibachi starter 🙂

Finish the grilled marinated swordfish with pesto

After mamma had prepared the grilled marinated swordfish, I noticed my papà outside, with his hands clasped behind his back. He was staring at the hibachi. “Papà,” I said, “Tutto è pronto.” {Everything is ready} He looked up at me, winked, then took his index finger and pointed to his forehead. Well, this I knew meant he had come up with some idea.

He was always coming up with ways and means to make things easier, better, more economical. Sometimes his ideas worked; sometimes they didn’t. What he thought up this time was a sheet metal lid that fit perfectly on top of the hibachi, smothering the live coals, so whatever charcoal was left could be used at another time. He hated the thought of any charcoal going to waste.

We made this recipe for just the two of us, but Grilled Marinated Swordfish Italian Style can easily be doubled or tripled. We will be including more fish recipes, hopefully, just as soon as the fishing improves 🙂

Tutti a tavola è pronto!

Un caro saluto e alla prossima.