Kitchen itch: Bridget Jones’s pan-fried salmon with pine nut salsa
Here is the famous recipe from Bridget Jones’s Baby.
This is the dish Patrick Dempsey’s character tells Renee Zellweger’s Bridget Jones he would have brought her on their imaginary second date in Bridget Jones’s Baby. “From Ottolenghi,” he says, “delicious and healthy!” What sounded like a bit of product placement on our part was no such thing — the recipe didn’t even exist on our menu at the time.
Ingredients
— 100g currants
— 4 salmon fillets, skin on and pin-boned (about 500g)
— 100ml olive oil
— 4 celery sticks, cut into 1cm dice (180g), any leaves kept for garnish
— 30g pine nuts, roughly chopped
— 40g capers, plus 2 tbsp of their brine
— 40g large green olives (about 8), pitted and cut into 1cm dice
— 1 good pinch of saffron threads (¼ tsp), mixed with 1 tbsp hot water
— 20g parsley, roughly chopped
— 1 lemon: finely grate the zest to get 1 tsp, then juice to get 1 tsp
— salt and black pepper
Cover currants with boiling water; set aside for 20 minutes. Mix salmon with 2 teaspoons of oil, 3 of salt and a good grind of pepper.
Put 75ml of olive oil into a large saute pan over high heat. Add celery and pine nuts and fry for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until nuts begin to brown (careful as they burn easily). Remove pan from heat and stir in capers and brine, olives, saffron and its water and a pinch of salt. Drain currants and add to pan with parsley, lemon zest and lemon juice; set aside.
Put remaining tablespoon of oil into a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the salmon fillets, skin side down, and fry for 3 minutes until skin is crisp. Reduce heat to medium, flip fillets over and fry 2-4 minutes depending on how much you like the salmon cooked. Arrange the salmon on four plates and spoon over the salsa. Scatter with celery leaves, if you have them. Serves 4
From Ottolenghi Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press, $55). Photography: Jonathan Lovekin.